Inessa A. Nikitina

Musicologist, ethnomusicologist, teacher, editor, music editor.

In 1984 she graduated from Bratsk College of Music, and in 1989 from the Faculty of History, Theory, and Composition of the Gnesin State Music and Pedagogical Institute (now the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music), class of Professor Borislava B. Efimenkova. From 1991 she studied in postgraduate school at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music (supervisor: Borislava B. Efimenkova).

Her main research interests concern folk musical culture, in particular the traditions of the Russian North. Her work focuses on lyric songs, traditional youth gatherings and seasonal festivities, and the polyphonic textures of folk songs. She has carried out fieldwork since 1985, with expeditions to the Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Smolensk, and Bryansk regions of Russia and the Sumy Region of Ukraine.

Inessa A. Nikitina has taken part in many international scholarly conferences in Russia and has led and participated in research projects supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Russian Humanities Research Foundation.

She is the author of numerous scholarly publications. Among her major works is the multivolume scholarly edition Smolensky muzykalno‑etnografichesky sbornik, where she is a member of the authorial team and volume editor.

Since 2012 she has been editor‑in‑chief of the journal Voprosy etnomuzykologii, the only specialised periodical in Russia and abroad devoted to ethnomusicology.

Since 2013 she has been one of the participants in the project to create the Unified Electronic Catalogue of Objects of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Peoples of the Russian Federation.

She began her teaching career in the Krasnoyarsk State Institute of Arts (1989–1991) as a teacher of music‑theoretical disciplines.

Since 1991 she has worked at the Gnesin State Music and Pedagogical Institute – Gnesin Russian Academy of Music as a leading specialist at the Gippius Centre for Music and Ethnography (until 2016 the Problem Research Laboratory for the Study of Traditional Musical Cultures).

Since 1996 she has taught in the Department of Music History (since 2012 as a Senior Lecturer), and since 2018 she has been a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Ethnomusicology.

Publications, conferences, and projects:

Her main scholarly interests are connected with folk musical culture, in particular the traditions of the Russian North. Her research focuses on lyric songs, pitch and rhythmic organisation, polyphonic texture in folk songs, and traditional forms of youth gatherings.

Since 1991 she has worked at the Gnesin State Music and Pedagogical Institute – Gnesin Russian Academy of Music as a member, and now leading specialist, of the Gippius Centre for Music and Ethnography (formerly the Problem Research Laboratory for the Study of Traditional Musical Cultures).

Since 1985 she has taken part in around thirty field expeditions to the Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Smolensk, Bryansk, and Belgorod regions of Russia and the Sumy Region of Ukraine. She has participated in numerous international and All‑Russian scholarly forums, including the Gippius Readings, Ryabinin Readings, All‑Russian Congresses of Folklorists, and conferences on musical folkloristics at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.

Since 2013 she has been one of the participants in the project to create the Unified Electronic Catalogue of Objects of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Peoples of the Russian Federation.

Since 1996 she has led and participated in numerous research, fieldwork, and publishing projects supported by the Russian Humanities Research Foundation and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, including:

• «Musical‑Ethnographic Materials in Contemporary Sound Recordings: Seasonally Related Lyric Songs of the Russian West (Smolensk Region)», RGNF, no. 97‑04‑06316a, 1997–1999;
• «Ethnomusicological Expedition: Traditional Musical Culture of the Upper Desna Region», RGNF, no. 00‑04‑18020e, 2000;
• «Smolensky muzykalno‑etnografichesky sbornik, vol. 3: Seasonally Related Lyric Songs», RGNF, no. 04‑04‑16148d, 2004;
• «Field Survey of Regional Traditions of Russian Musical Folklore for the Russian Musical Dialect Atlas», RGNF, no. 11‑04‑18018e, 2011;
• «The Musical Culture of the Russian North in the Scholarly Legacy of Borislava B. Efimenkova: On the 80th Anniversary of the Outstanding Scholar», RGNF, no. 12‑04‑16219d, 2012;
• «Lyric Songs of the Mezen Basin in the Context of the Traditional Culture of the Russian North», RFFI, no. 16‑04‑00492a, 2016–2018, among others.

She is the author of a significant number of scholarly publications, including four volumes of the multivolume Smolensky muzykalno‑etnografichesky sbornik (member of the editorial board and authorial team, author of sections in several volumes, and responsible editor of two volumes).

Selected articles published in the last decade include:

1. Nikitina, Inessa A. «Musical‑Syntactic Structures of Lyric Songs of the Middle Mezen», in Mir traditsionnoy muzykalnoy kultury, vol. 174, Moscow: Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, 2008, pp. 77–93;
2. Nikitina, Inessa A. «Musical‑Syntactic Structures of Lyric Songs of the Middle Mezen», in Mir traditsionnoy muzykalnoy kultury, vol. 174, Moscow: Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, pp. 77–93;
3. Nikitina, Inessa A. «On Local Traditions of Youth Gatherings on the “Russian” Mezen», in Ot kongressa k kongressu, proceedings of the Second All‑Russian Congress of Folklorists, vol. 1, Moscow: State Republican Centre of Russian Folklore, 2010, pp. 336–344;
4. Nikitina, Inessa A. «Lyric Songs on the “Russian” Mezen: On the Problem of Identifying Sublocal Traditions», in Ryabininskie chteniya – 2011, proceedings of the Sixth scholarly conference on the cultural heritage of the Russian North, Petrozavodsk, 2011, pp. 350–352;
5. Nikitina, Inessa A., Olga A. Pashina, and Elena A. Dorokhova, «Folklore Archives in the Internet Era», in Russky folklor: Materialy i issledovaniya, vol. 34, Saint Petersburg: Nauka, 2011, pp. 478–481;
6. Nikitina, Inessa A. «On Two‑Register Heterophony in the Russian North: Materials from Mezen Expeditions», Voprosy etnomuzykologii, 2013, no. 1, pp. 17–30;
7. Nikitina, Inessa A. «On Mechanisms of Secondary Rhythmic Structures in Mezen Protyazhnye Songs», Voprosy etnomuzykologii, 2016, no. 1, pp. 50–67.

Since 2012 Inessa A. Nikitina has been editor‑in‑chief of the journal Voprosy etnomuzykologii, the only specialised periodical in Russia and abroad devoted to ethnomusicology.

She is a permanent member of the organising committee of the annual International Folklore Festival Mayskie assamblei, held at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music since 2014 and aimed at promoting the folk musical heritage and supporting young musicians committed to preserving and reviving traditional folk culture in its authentic forms.