Oleksandr Rodin (1975, Piddobryanka, Belarus) is a contemporary Ukrainian composer, pianist, and actor.
He graduated as a pianist from the L. Revutsky Chernihiv Music College in 1994, and in 2001 from the A. Nezhdanova Odesa State Conservatory (now the A. Nezhdanova Odesa National Music Academy). In the early 2000s, he moved to Kyiv. Since 2005, he has been a member of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine. Winner of numerous prizes and awards.
He gained his first compositional experience at the music school when he wrote music for a dramatic performance. While studying at the Conservatory, O. Rodin began to master the art of composition on his own, and his first orchestral work was performed by Odesa conductor Ihor Shavruk. However, according to O. Rodin, he never planned to receive an academic education as a composer.
The style in which the composer works can be described as neo-academic. In his music, O. Rodin tends to follow the established canons of contemporary Ukrainian academic music and combine them with the modern musical "vocabulary" of the twenty-first century. The composer's music is characterised by a paradoxical combination of pure harmony and dissonance, lyrical and dramatic moments, melodism and aleatoric, impressionism and expressionism.
The composer's oeuvre includes works of various genres: symphonic, choral, chamber and instrumental music, ballets, and opera. Among the main works: "Requiem for symphony orchestra, choir and soloists, Seven Last Words of Jesus on the Cross for symphony orchestra, symphonic cycle Flea Market, Stabat Mater for soprano, mezzo-soprano and string orchestra, Love Death, a cantata based on the poems of Ch. Baudelaire for soprano and symphony orchestra, "Panakhida" for mixed choir, "Song to the Holy Virgin" for mixed choir, "Missa Luminosa" for soprano and string, "Book of Dreams" for strings and percussion, cycle "Sketches for piano", etc.
He is the author of ballets: "Aladdin", "Seasons", "Up the River", "Viy", "Rosa's Vision", which he realised in creative collaboration with the Kyiv Municipal Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet for Children and Youth and the Ukrainian Theatre of Modern Choreography "Kyiv Modern Ballet". He wrote the opera Kateryna based on the works of Taras Shevchenko. He is the author of numerous arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs, paraphrases of classical works, music for dramatic performances, films and TV series.
