Dmitri Valentinovich Smirnov was born on December 7, 1952 in Leningrad. He graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory in 1975 in Chorus Conducting with A. V. Mikhailov, then in 1978 in Opera and Symphony Conducting with E.P. Grikurov, and completed his postgraduate course in 1980.
Smirnov is one of the most colourful, original, and important chorus composers of today. His compositions honour the repertoires of many choirs in Russia and abroad, are broadly performed in more than 40 countries, and are inevitably acclaimed both by professional musicians and audiences. He is not to be confused with Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov (b. 1948 in Minsk).

Dmitri Valentinovich Smirnov was born on December 7, 1952 in Leningrad. He graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory in 1975 in Chorus Conducting with A. V. Mikhailov, then in 1978 in Opera and Symphony Conducting with E.P. Grikurov, and completed his postgraduate course in 1980.
Smirnov is one of the most colourful, original, and important chorus composers of today. His compositions honour the repertoires of many choirs in Russia and abroad, are broadly performed in more than 40 countries, and are inevitably acclaimed both by professional musicians and audiences. He is not to be confused with Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov (b. 1948 in Minsk).

Sofia Gubaidulina (b. 1931), growing up in the Tatar Republic, bound peculiar fusion of Eastern and Western into dramatic polarities in her later work. She graduated from the Kazan' Conservatory in 1954 having studied composition and piano; she then left for Moscow, where she studied at the Conservatory with Nikolay Peyko until 1959, and then with Shebalin until 1963. Already by this time, Gubaidulina was marked as an "irresponsible" composer on "a mistaken path"; Shostakovich, among others, supported her however, advising her to "continue along [her] mistaken path." Today Gubaidulina is a successful freelance composer, having won a number of prestigious composition prizes and grants.
On this CD also a work by Klaus Ager.