About Ilya Demutsky
Ilya Demutsky is a multi-award winning composer, performer, and conductor. His works include compositions for orchestra, chorus, chamber ensemble, piano, voice, as well as electronic and film music. Ilya holds a Master’s degree in choral conducting from Saint Petersburg State Conservatory and a Master of Music in Composition from San Francisco Conservatory of Music which he attended on a Fulbright scholarship (studied with David Conte).
Demutsky’s music for the full-length ballet A Hero of Our Time (choreography by Yuri Possokhov, directed by Kirill Serebrennikov) at the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow has won him the most coveted Russian theatre award, the Golden Mask, for the Best Composer in Musical Theatre, and the production was named the Best Ballet Production for 2015/2016. In January 2017, San Francisco Ballet opened its new season with the world premiere of his ballet Optimistic Tragedy, and the same year ended with the much anticipated opening of the full-length ballet Nureyev at the Bolshoi in December 2017 (choreography by Yuri Possokhov, directed by Kirill Serebrennikov). Nureyev won four Prix Benois 2018 awards, including Best Composer Work in Ballet.
In 2019, the Joffrey Ballet and The Australian Ballet commissioned from Ilya Demutsky a new full-length orchestral score for an entirely new story ballet based on Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina — the first full-length commission in the Joffrey's history. The ballet has been performed in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Berkeley, Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne on numerous occasions and with great success.
In 2026, Demutsky's music will be featured in several major ballet premieres: Eugene Onegin at San Francisco Ballet and the Joffrey Ballet Chicago, and STANDBY choreographed by Paul Lightfoot and Sol León at The Royal Ballet in London.
For his score of The Student (directed by Kirill Serebrennikov), Demutsky won the title of “European Composer of 2016” bestowed by the European Film Academy. His work in film music also includes the score for The Disappearance of Josef Mengele, a film directed by Kirill Serebrennikov and selected for the Cannes Film Festival in 2025.
The full-length ballet The Seagull, commissioned by the Bolshoi Theater and premiered in July 2021, has received both the Golden Mask and the BraVo Award as Best Ballet.
Ilya Demutsky lives in France.
SELECTED AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
2021 - BraVo Award (Best Ballet for the Seagull)
2021 - Golden Mask Russian National Theater Award (Best Ballet for the Seagull)
2020 - BraVo Award (Best Ballet for Nureyev)
2019 - Golden Mask Russian National Theater Award (Best Ballet for Nureyev)
2018 - Benois de la Danse Award (Best Composer)
2016 - European Film Award (Best Composer)
2016 - Golden Mask Russian National Theater Award (Best Composer, Best Ballet for Hero of Our Time)
2017 - San Francisco Conservatory Hoefer Prize
2013 - The Medal of the President of the Italian Republic
2013 - 1st Prize at the International Composition Competition «2 Agosto» (Bologna)
2008 - Jim Highsmith Composition Competition (San Francisco)
