.:: Semionov ::.



Pianoforte	Fisarmonica	Fisarmonica Diatonica

Viatcheslav Semionov was born in 1946 in the ancient city of Trubchevsk, Bryansk (about 300km south of Moscow). Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, he began playing the bayan (chromatic accordion) at the age of 7. After his father's initial tuition he continued his studies at the Rostov Art College and the Gnessins' Musical Pedagogical Institute in Moscow (now called the Russian Gnessins Academy of Music), one of the great musical centres in Russia.

At 21 years of age his international career began, when he started to take part in accordion competitions in Klingenthal, Germany (1967), Sofia, Bulgaria (1968) and Berlin, Germany (1973), in all of which he was placed Laureate of these competitions. As concert artist Viatcheslav Semionov has given concerts in more than 30 countries.

Viatcheslav Semionov (who may rightly be called, one of the founders of the modern school of the bayan) began teaching in 1968 at the Rostov Musical Pedagogical Institute. In 1988, Semionov was invited to be a Professor of Gnessins Russian Academy of Music. Over fifty of his students have been competition winners at international level and many others of his students have won national competitions. Youri Shishkin, Anatoli Zaikin, Youri Dranga, Yuri Medianik, Alexander Pouliev, Alexander Selivanov have received their education from Prof. Semionov.

In addition to his intensive teaching schedule, he pursued his career on the concert stage, for which he received the following accolades:
1977 Awarded the title "Honoured Artist of Russia"
1982 Vice-President of the Music Committee of the
Confederation Internationale des Accordeonistes
1983 Granted degree of Professor
1988 Professor at the Gnessins Russian Academy of Music, Moscow.
1994 Awarded the Silver Disk at the Intern. Festival "Bayan and Bayanists" in Moscow
1995 Awarded the highest possible honour "People's Artist of Russia" by President Boris Yeltsin
2000 Laureate awarded at the International Competition of Composers in Moscow
2002 Elected to the Confederation Internationale des Accordeonistes Music Committee
2004 Awarded the Merit Award of the Confederation Internationale des Accordeonistes
2005 Order of Friendship presented by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin

As well as often being invited to give master classes at conservatories in Russia and abroad, he is frequently asked to judge at international competitions. Since 1991 he has been playing duo with his wife Natalya Semionov who plays the domra (a traditional Russian folk instrument). They have given concerts in the USA, China, and extensively throughout Europe.

Viatcheslav is well known as a composer for the bayan. His compositions, "First Sonata", "Basquriad - Second Sonata" "Four Rhapsody: Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Estonia", "Don Rhapsody", "Frescos - Concert for Bayan ansprice No. 2", and others, are considered standard repertoire by many accordionists in the world and his works are compulsory pieces for many international accordion competitions. His compositions have been published in both Russia and Germany. He has recorded several LPs and cassettes and in1996 his first CD "Semionov plays his Transcriptions" was released.