Alissa Firsova

Lives in Herts, United Kingdom

Alissa Firsova was born 24 July 1986 in Moscow, Russia into a family of composers, Elena Firsova and Dmitri Smirnov. In 1991, she and her family moved to England, and at the age of eight, she began studying piano with Tatiana Kantorovich. In 1999, Alissa gained a full scholarship at the Purcell School where she continued studying piano and composition. Her piano teachers included Valeria Szervansky, James Gibb, and currently Simon Mulligan. Her composition teachers included Jeoffrey Sharkey, Jonothan Cole, Richard Dubugnon, and currently Simon Speare. Alissa has participated in piano master classes with Andrew Ball, Ronan O’Hora, Yonty Solomon and Stephen Kovacevich. In 2001, Alissa won the BBC/Guardian/Proms Young Composer Competition with her piano piece “Les Pavots”, which followed workshops with Leonard Slatkin, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Fraser Trainer and Sally Beamish, plus a Radio 3 broadcast of “Les Pavots” played by Alissa herself. Later that year Alissa recorded her father’s Piano Sonata No.4 “String of Destiny” on the Mega Disc label. In September 2001 Alissa received a commission from ABRSM to write a cello and piano piece for Spectrum. Alissa was also commissioned from “8u8” ensemble of St.Petersburg and in March her “Entire City” for string quintet was performed in the State of the Nation Festival. In 2003 her orchestral piece “Strength Through Joy” was performed by the Purcell Symphony Orchestra under Peter Stark in the Duke’s Hall, Royal Academy, after winning the school’s Composer’s competition. In 2004 she graduated from Purcell School and entered Royal Academy of Music, London.