Biography (read more)
Yury (Yuri) Alekseevich Smirnov (b. 1935) is a Russian guitarist and composer from St. Petersburg. Alongside his musical career he worked for around three decades at the Bolshoi Drama Theatre (Bol’shoj Dramaticheskiy Teatr imeni G. Towstonogowa) in St. Petersburg. He is known within guitar circles for a catalogue of short character pieces, including a widely-played Prelude and Romance.
Smirnov’s guitar miniatures circulate mainly through guitarist-to-guitarist transmission and sheet-music archives rather than mainstream publication, but his Prelude has become a recognizable recital piece among Russian-trained players.
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