Dmitri Kourliandski was born in 1976 in Moscow. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory and completed post-graduate course led by Leonid Bobylev. Attended master classes given by many Russian and foreign composers. His compositions won awards in Russia, France and Great Britain. In 2003 he won the Grand Prix of the International Gaudeamus Competition in the Netherlands. In 2010 - Gianni Bergamo Classic Music Award (Switzerland). Guest of the Berliner Kuenstlerprogramm 2008 (DAAD Artist-in-residence). Ensemble 2e2m (France) composer-in-residence 2010. Winner of 2011 Johann Joseph Fux opera composition competition (Austria).

Dmitri Kourliandski's music is regularly played in concerts and at festivals, including Donaueschingen, MaerzMusik, Venice biennale, Musica Strasbourg, Huddersfield, Athens festival, Archipel (Geneva), Transart, Klangspuren Schwaz, Elektra Montreal, ISCM WMD, Warsaw Autumn, Territoria (Moscow) and many others. His music is broadcast worldwide (including radio portraits at France Musique, Deutschlandradio Kultur, RBB, Radionova (Norway), CKUT (Canada) and others). Dmitri Kourliandski worked with such conductors as Teodor Currentzis,  Fedor Lednev, Reinbert de Leeuw, Roland Kluttig, Pierre Roullier, Jurjen Hempel, Giorgio Bernasconi and others. His compositions were played by many Russian and European orchestras and ensembles, such as SWR orchestra, MusicAeterna, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Yekaterinburg philharmonic orchestra, J.Futura orchestra, Tatiana Grindenko and Opus Posth, KlangForum Wien, ASKO and Schoenberg ensembles, InterContemporain, 2E2M, L'Itineraire, Contrechamps, KNM, Aleph, Slagwerkgroep den Haag, Champ d'action, Kairos quartet, Sonar quartet, Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, eNsemble, Studio for New Music and many others. He has received commissions from many Russian and European festivals, ensembles and foundations. His works are published by Editions Jobert.

Mr. Kourliandski is the founder and editor-in-chief of Tribuna Sovremennoi Muzyki (Tribune of Contemporary Music, 2005-2009), the first Russian journal dealing with contemporary music issues. He is a co-founder of the Structural Resistance (StRes) group of composers and member of the Composers' Union of Russia. Artistic director of the International Academy of Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble in Tchaikovsky city.

 

From 2004, Dmitri Kourliandski designates his creative search as "objective music". "The concept of music as an object, a visual phenomenon, is opposite to romantic concept characterized by evolution of music in time (which is largely typical of contemporary music, too). In my music, there is no evolution, there is no action. Some compositions can give the listener an impression of action, of dramaturgy. But this is simply a consequence of human perception: when something exists in time, something always happens within us. A human being can feel, experience, think in his innermost being, without this being caused by an exterior action: the action is inner". "I love kinetic sculptures. I like something that seems static and yet at the same time provokes a multitude of thoughts. Formally, my compositions can be defined as a mechanisms whereby if you press a button all the music comes out. Listeners are invited to notice how the piece functions." (From the interview to Makis Solomos. Logbook of the Ensemble Aleph 3rd International Forum for Young Composers. France, 2004). Dmitri Kourliandski's language completely rejects traditional instrumental sounding. "There can be no restrictions on art. "Abnormal" sounds do not contradict today's language position. On the contrary, such sounds form new active fields, where the decisive element is not the reliance on available experience, but the possibility of gaining new one." ("Objective Music. From General to Particular". Tribune of Contemporary Music, No. 1/4, 2006).