Winning and Losing in Russian New Music Today

This article examines some of the organizational changes shaping Russian new music from the collapse of the USSR in 1991 to the present and their consequences for composers active in Russia today. The Soviet collapse triggered significant transformations in how new music in Russia is funded, where and by whom it is performed, and how it is promoted and distributed. These developments have affected the opportunities available to contemporary Russian composers, their strategies for career success, and how they envision their place vis-à-vis other composers or within society at large. More significantly, such changes have shaped individual composers' creative practices: as composers moved into new collaborative networks after the Soviet collapse; as the resources at their disposal changed; and as they composed for new performers, markets, or patrons, so, too, did their styles change. In explaining musical developments from an organizational perspective, this article draws upon theories from the sociology of culture literature, in particular Howard Becker's idea of “art worlds” and the production-of-culture perspective developed by Richard Peterson and others. The article also considers factors other than organizational ones affecting Russian music today, including the generational shift presently underway as members of post-Soviet birth cohorts enter the professional ranks.