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Inspired by the true story of the former Russian security officer Alexander “Sasha” Litvinenko who was poisoned to death in 2006, ITVX will premier Litvinenko (starring David Tennant, Mark Bonnar, Margarita Levieva & Neil Maskell) in March 2023.

Gabriel was invited to write the music for this drama prior to filming, and this was Gabriel Prokofiev’s first UK TV drama score.

Prokofiev, whose own family were targeted by the KGB under Stalin, his grandmother Lina having been imprisoned for eight years in a gulag between 1948-54; is well-placed to respond to the horror of the Litvinenko story.

Prokofiev’s soundtrack has a Russian, and at times, Soviet feel. Working with Maxim Rysanov (the Ukrainian violist for whom Prokofiev composed his first viola concerto) and violinist Max Baillie, Prokofiev has created a series of humane and emotional scenes that underpin the tragic fate of Litvinenko with a sense of compassion. Minimalist without becoming ineffable, moving without indulging in sentimentality, Prokofiev travels sonically from London to Moscow with assurance.

To listen to the album click here

Here together for the first time, are two releases united by parallel processes. Both "Strange Blooms" and "Howl!" were originally composed for contemporary dance projects – Strange Blooms in collaboration with choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh, and Howl!, written initially as a score for American choreographer, Maurice Causey, and premiered by Luzerner Ballet.

Both works, too, use keyboards, separated by three centuries: A natural recording of a 17th-century baroque harpsichord (performed by Jane Chapman) as the basis for the hybrid explorations of Strange Blooms, which are filtered through digital granular processing techniques (stretching, brassage, warping). Howl! draws on a different “tradition,” subjecting a range of sounds produced by a 1970s Arp Odyssey to cut and paste, multitrack layering, samplers and filtering. Both works celebrate hybridity and explore the synthesis of organic and mechanical, old and new, for the brave new world to come. 

Includes CD booklet with detailed programme notes, and all cardboard packaging, plus unlimited streaming of Strange Blooms + HOWL! via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more..

Listen to the album here.

On Thursday 02nd February (7:30pm), my Viola Concerto will be performed in Zagreb at the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall.  Maxim Rysanov (Viola + Conductor) will lead The Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra for the East European Premier, which will be broadcast on TV and radio at a later date.

For tickets and more info click here.

Starting with an interview on Angellica Bell’s Saturday morning show at 10am on Saturday 28th Jan, I’ll be 'Artist of the Week' at digital classical radio station: Scala Radio.

For more info and tickets click here.

The final concert of the tour will take place on Sunday 6th November in Kansas. Salina Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Yaniv Segal) will perform the US premier of the orchestral version of Gabriel’s most recent album ‘Breaking Screen’s' at the historic Stiefel Theatre, Salina, KS. It will be preceded by a classic-club-night at a disused warehouse, at 500 North 5th Street, Salina, KS, 8:30pm-late with Gabriel on electronics joined by Yaniv Segal (violin), Mel Rachelm (viola).

On Halloween, Composers Concordance and Access Contemporary Music present 'Breaking Halloween'. Gabriel’s first event in NYC in over 7 years...! Alongside the Kahlo String Quartet, Gabriel will be on live electronics performing 'Breaking Screens' as well his other works for electronics and cello.

For more info and tickets click here.

Gabriel will be heading to Boston for the first time for an evening of musical exploration with Manuela Isabel Romero Gonzalez, Etienne Abelin and Maria Finkelmeier. The evening will mark the second concert of the tour on Friday 28th October at The Record Co. Doors at 7:30pm, Music at 8:00pm.

For more info and tickets click here.

The first concert to kick off this USA mini-tour, is the USA premier of my Beethoven9 Symphonic Remix performed by the Rockford Symphony Orchestra on Saturday 22nd October. Gabriel will be performing sampler live on stage, conducted by Yaniv Segal, who recorded the work for NAXOS 3 years ago.

For more info and tickets click here.

On the 20th & 21st October, Gabriel’s ‘Viola Concerto’ will premier at the Auditorium di Milano Fondazione Cariplo (20:30, 20:00). The wonderful Maxim Rysanov returns as the unprecedented role of soloist and conductor!

For more info and tickets click here.

Together with UNLTD Collective, Gabriel is excited to announce ‘Pastoral 21’s’ London premier performance at Kings Place on Sunday 9th October (19:00pm-20:30pm). He will perform electronics alongside six extremely talented young string players from Germany, Turkey, UK, Switzerland & Spain, all alumni of the Verbier Festival Academy.

More info and tickets here.

Eight years after performing at the opening festival of the stunning Cesis Concert Hall in 2014, Gabriel finally returned on 16th September to present a special program of music for electronics and strings, with a focus on Cello for the Cello Cēsis Festival.

The programme featured music from Gabriels recent album ‘Breaking Screens’ alongside some of his earlier works - ‘Cello Multitracks’, in a version for three Cellos + a virtual cello ensemble of six loudspeakers, as well as a movement from ‘Howl’, Gabriels latest EP release, in a version with cello solo.

It was fantastic to be reunited with the very adventurous & uncompromising Latvian cellist Valters Pūce for the concert, and also to perform alongside string players from the phenomenal Sinfonietta Riga.

Gabriels residency at progressive Italian music festival began with the world premier of his Flute Concerto ‘Dante’, commissioned by the festival, and ended two weeks ago with two performances showcasing his music for electronics and strings, performed by the renowned contemporary string quartet: Quartetto Nous, alongside alumni from the Stauffer Institute (where Gabriel is a visiting professor of composition).

More on the mysterious story of how the ‘lights went out’ during the flute concerto here.

Concerto for Turntables NUMBER 2! French premier tomorrow night in Montpellier at Le Corum Opéra Berlioz. DJ Mr & Gabriel have been rehearsing for weeks & it’s been v exciting & v intense watching it come together with the brilliant Orchestre national Montpellier Occitanie. This concerto is a big step up from Gabriel’s first concerto for turntables and it features many more recent DJ techniques like ‘Euro-scratch’, needle percussion, label-noise, looping, filtering. Big thanks to the orchestra who are sounding so musical & tight & of course Chris Warren Green who completely understands the unusual approach of this work.

More info here.

Commissioned by Massimo Mercelli & The Emilia Romagna Festival for Flute & String Orchestra, Gabriel’s  Flute Concerto will be performed in Italy at the Imola Church of San Domenico (16th July, 21:00).

Nicknamed, ‘Dante’ Concerto, the very contrasting 5 movements are all inspired by Dante’s ‘Inferno’ which Gabriel studied in 2021 during lockdown. The concerto takes us on a journey from Dante’s mid-life existential reflections, through to the gates of hell, wicked dances of the devils, and then to memories of Dante’s muse Beatrice. Massimo Mercelli’s great musician sensitivity and virtuosic skill on both C-flute and bass flute are fully explored, as is the versatile strings of ORCHESTRA de I SOLISTI AQUILANI (conducted by ALDO SISILLO)

I - Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita… (Andante riflessivo)

II - Dante di fronte al verde prato del limbo (Moderato)

III - Visioni Infernali: Porte dell'Inferno, Acheron, Charon… (Lento Infausto - Rabbioso - Animato)

IV - Dansa dei diavoli (Allegro minaccioso)

V - Riveder le stelle, Beatrice (Adagio grazioso)

For tickets and more info click here.

Gabriel is excited to announce the launch of the new label: ‘OSCILLATIONS’, a label that celebrates electronic music with a narrative. On Sunday 3rd July, 4pm-11pm (DJs from 4pm / live from 5pm), we will be hosting a mini-festival at one of London's most exciting new venues: Iklectik (near Waterloo).

Expect striking live electronic music that tells stories; music that reflects on social and personal themes; presented in immersive surround-sound, using Iklectik’s special multi-speaker, ambisonics system. A move away from the minimalist approach that dominates the electronic music scene, a chance to close your eyes and enjoy ‘cinema for your ears’. + Imaginative DJ-sets will alternate with the live performances.

Alongside live performances from Ibukun Sunday, Jonty Harrison, 'Dirty Electronics' (aka John Richards) and DJ-sets from Classical Mechanics, Blanka Stachelek and more… Gabriel will give the world premier performance of his new EP: ‘HOWL!’ as well as performing the recent album: ‘Breaking Screens’ with Nigerian String Ensemble: Dulcis Ensemble - who will also perform their own works.

Tickets: £8.50 Advance / £12 OTD - For more info and to purchase tickets click here

The long-awaited release of 'HOWL!’: An electronic composition that explores the experience and struggles of protesting and rebelling against oppressive states is released today, available on all streaming platforms and online stores (limited vinyl coming soon). ‘HOWL!' EP is the first release on the new label Oscillations and it can be streamed via the links here:
Spotify Apple Music Bandcamp

'HOWL!', initially inspired by the 'Arab Spring', explores the explosion of recent technologies as a conduit for protest and opposition movements of all kinds, but also their ambivalence and tendency towards corruption and confusion. Composed at first as a score for American choreographer, Maurice Causey, and premiered by Luzerner Ballet, the piece then evolved over multiple live performances, including its Hong Kong premiere in 2019, which took place just a few hundred metres from the independence protests, and featured local clarinettist Linus YS Fung who here appears on the EP version of HOWL! II.

With guest appearances from classical musicians, Fung Yat Shan (Clarinet) and Yury Revich (violin), Prokofiev conjures a digital-age orchestra for the internet age, channelling the passions running through the wires that seek to turn blood into information. In 2022, with the war in Ukraine and protesting in Russia forbidden, HOWL! feels as relevant as ever.

We have a promo video for 'HOWL! ||' - Separation which can be watched here more videos coming on instagram soon.
* Please support independent music and our new label: Oscillations by downloading on Bandcamp.

'Separation' (violin edit) ft.Yury Revich is a haunting combination of ominous electronic clicks, with a lonely violin & synthesiser duet.

HOWL!, initially inspired by the 'Arab Spring', explores the explosion of recent technologies as a conduit for protest and opposition movements of all kinds, but also their ambivalence and tendency towards corruption and confusion. Composed at first as a score for American choreographer, Maurice Causey, and premiered by Luzerner Ballet, the piece then evolved over multiple live performances, including its Hong Kong premiere in 2019, which took place just a few hundred metres from the independence protests, and featured local clarinettist Linus YS Fung who here appears on the EP version of HOWL! II.

The single is available to stream here:

Spotify (click here) Apple Music (click here) Bandcamp (click here)

Yury and Gabriel (who both have Russian roots, but stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine) are dedicating this single release to the resistance in Ukraine, and everyone protesting against the Russian invasion.

Check Gabriel’s instagram in the next few days to see the promotional video current being finished.

Gabriel is heading to the Classical:NEXT conference in Hanover (HCC, Future Meeting Space B) between 17th-20th May for meetings and his annual DJing at the late night 'nonclassical' style after hours club at Cumberlandsche Bühne, Schauspielhaus, Hanover from 22:15-2:00.

It will be great to reconnect with classical industry colleagues after two years of COVID-19... Please get in touch with Gabriel if you're going to be there.

For more information about Classical:NEXT click here.
For more information about the DJ event click here.

Nonclassical and The African Concert Series are partnering for a two-day festival of live music and discussions, celebrating the diversity of musical styles from the African continent.

Gabriel has a long-standing interest in African music and is thrilled to be co-producing some events that focus on African Classical music.

The curated programme will reflect on how we define ‘classical music’, challenging the Eurocentric narrative of the genre. Contrary to the catch-all term of ‘world music’, these events are an opportunity to discover the breadth of artistic approaches and styles in African classical music. 

The first event on the 4th May (Iklectik) will feature a series of collaborative and solo sets from Rebecca Omordia (piano), Tunde Jegede (Kora & Cello), Ibukun Sunday (Electronics & Viola), and myself (field recordings & DJing).

For the second event on the 8th May (The Africa Centre) Gabriel will lead a panel discussion on the subject: (Re)defining African Classical Music. Then there will be performances from Bex Burch & Alfa Sackey (on Ghanaian Gyil), then the KRAR Collective (Ethiopian lyre, fiddle, vocals) and a DJ set from Blasio Kavuma. 

For tickets and more info click here.

Gabriel has been digging through his old vinyl collection for a 5-hour, vinyl only DJ set at the audiophile music & sushi bar: Brilliant Corners in Dalston on Wednesday 27th April.

Here are some of the vinyl’s I’ll be spinning:

-Vintage vinyls of music from the soviet era - remembering the struggles that Gabriel’s ancestors & many others went through and praying that a new iron curtain is not going to be pulled across Europe again. Dedicating the first hour of DJing to the resistance in Ukraine.

-Vintage Electronics from Varese Poème Electronique, to Tom Dissevelt to Wendy Carlos…

-Gabriel’s collection of Pfunk albums.

And more…

Starts 7pm until 12am, free entry but booking is essential.

Click here for booking.

‘Pastoral 21’ is back for ‘Earth Day’, with a three day tour in Switzerland. ‘Pastoral 21’ is a one hour musical discourse on the question ‘what does the concept of pastoral mean to us in this time of climate crisis?’ Gabriel will be performing electronics alongside the UNLTD Collective ensemble powered by the Verbier Festival Academy.

Performances: April 21st at Maison des Moines Romainmôtier (7:30pm)
April 22nd (Earth Day), the Mascotte Club (8:00pm).
Then an open air gig at Place Centrale in Verbier, April 23rd (4:00pm) where Gabriel will DJ & perform other works.

Iklectik has to be one of the most musically adventurous & inspiring venues in London. On 2nd April 2022, Gabriel was invited to play the closing DJ-set at their launch party for the opening of their outside yard & ‘kiosk’. As ever his set included an unconventional mix of left-field classical, electronic, and contemporary-classical remixes.

The event started at 5pm and featured sets from Dragos, Airali, Kman the Phantom and Ava.

Ten years after he first performed it with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Dj Mr Switch is coming back to the Birmingham Symphony Hall this Saturday to perform Gabriel’s 'Concerto for Turntables No.1' with the brilliant City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ben Gernon.

Gabriel will be coming back to his University town of Birmingham for the day. The night has been very creatively programmed by the CBSO Youth Ambassadors.

The concept is Three Rooms, each with a different mood: 'From the loud to the light, dark to the bright, there’s room for everyone'.

7pm, Saturday 12th March, 2022, Birmingham Symphony Hall, UK.

For more information and tickets click here.

On Sunday 20th February, Nonclassical took over The Barbican foyer and main hall to celebrate a host of artists who use field recording and exploration of their environment at the centre of their music. Before the curated evening event, there were panel discussions, DJ sets and performances from Chihiro Ono, Langham Research Centre, Ligeti Quartet and Cedrik Fermont in the foyer. Afterwards we moved to the main hall for the evening event to listen to performances from Langham Research Centre x Photolanguage, Rebeca Ormodia, Kate Carr, Ligeti Quartet, Cedrik Fermont, Li Yilei.

Composers featured in the performances include:
Lili Boulanger, Kaikhosru Sorabji, John Luther Adams, Christian Onyeji, Cassandra Miller, Luc Ferrari, John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Anna Meredith, Cedrik Fermont & more.

Gabriel finished his Omicron isolation period just in time for the premier of his ‘Viola Concerto’ at the Bonn Opera House on the 14th January 2022. The wonderful violist Maxim Rysanov both performed and conducted the concerto alongside the Beethoven Bonn Orchester.

Since the performance, there have been many excellent newspaper and magazine reviews, the latest from the General Anzeiger:

“The music has the power to stand for itself. How the solo instrument emerges from the orchestral fog of sound in the first movement, how it has to assert itself against heavy accents or a sharp trumpet signal, is exciting to follow. Just like the dialogue between solo and tutti in this rhythmically extremely gripping work is very imaginative and always has surprises in store”.

“In Bonn there was great applause for the soloist, the orchestra and the composer, who had travelled all the way from London”.

To read the review in Papageno Magazine click here.

Between the 12th-16th of February 2022, Gabriel will be leading a masterclass at the Stauffer Center for Strings in Cremona, the birthplace of the violin (home of Amati, Rugeri, & Stradivarios). During the course, Gabriel will explore the question: How do we compose music in the 21st Century? The students will be challenged to re-evaluate their roles as composers and reconsider the potential of contemporary classical in the context of modern 21st century life. The lab will explore the role of electronics alongside the importance of acoustic performance and also discuss performance practice, exploring ideas about how to bring contemporary works to new audiences.

Please share this with any young composers you know, particularly those who have an interest in working with electronics and acoustic ensembles. For more details about the course, visit the website here. The deadline is January 17th 2022 and please note that the program is entirely free, except accommodation which must be organised by each individual.

We’re very excited to announce that Gabriel’s new album is now available on CD, in limited edition from the historic Firma Melodiya label - who’s iconic logo is embossed on the vinyl-style disc. The album is now available from all main retailers (Naxos, Amazon Music, WHSmith, Presto Music, etc…). If you get your hands on a copy, you will receive a CD embossed with the original Melodiya vinyl label, inside high-quality cardboard Digi-pack packaging, with a 20 page colour booklet. 

NOTE: This is an ideal gift for electronic music fans who are curious about classical music, and classical music fans who are curious about electronic music...!

And I recommend checking out Melodiya’s catalogue. They have been reissuing most of their classic releases from the 50s & 60s, as well as several high-quality new classical releases.

The album has been getting a lot of radio support on various independent classical and electronic radio shows in Europe. And several blog & press reviews, the latest from Roland Torres at Silence And Sound - "Techno kicks and dubstep breaks can erupt to make you dizzy, the strings support everything in glissando or pizzicato, offering diversity and power, dreamlike and urban, the worlds uniting to share with us the genesis of the world and its fragmented diversity. Vital.” 

Thank you to everyone who played a part in the making of 'Breaking Screens'...

The Moscow premiere of Gabriel’s Cello Concerto was performed at the Tchaikovsky Hall for the final night of Viva Cello Festival on the 20th November. In 2013, it was performed by Sasha Ivashkin (who commissioned the piece) at the St Petersburg Philharmonic Hall. The recent recording of the Concerto featuring Boris Andrianov and Ural Philharmonic (2018) can be found via this link here. The second movement of the Concerto was written in memory of the struggles that Gabriel’s father, uncle and grandparents faced when living in Moscow during the Soviet era, bringing extra significance to this first performance in Moscow.

What is British identity? And what is that in music? Together with Fretwork, the UK’s leading viol consort, composer Orlando Gough and Gabriel have co-curated & commissioned a new project in which a host of British composers tell the story through their arrangements of music by British musical icons such as Edward Elgar, Kate Bush, the Sugababes, William Lawes, Napalm Death, Annie Lennox, MJ Cole, The Clash, Delia Derbyshire and Radiohead.

The event will be taking place at Kings Place, London this Friday 12th November at 8:00 PM. Click here for tickets and more information.

The new project ‘Pastoral 21’ explores how the concept of Pastoral has changed in this time of Climate Crisis and that “while nature brought unalloyed joy for Beethoven’s contemporaries, the pastoral brings a sense of fear for us, considering how mankind has damaged it” (Prokofiev, The Times).

Commissioned by the Verbier Festival, Gabriel joins forces with the UNLTD Collective (Verbier Academy Festival alumni musicians) to present a music and sound experience for string sextet, live electronics and field recordings. The performance took place at Stereo in Glasgow during COP26. Whilst Gabriel was in Glasgow, he took part in the ‘Global Day of Action for Climate 2021’ march just before his rehearsal.

“The blend of electronic music and acoustic strings is managed effectively so that one sounds like an extension of the other, the electronic sounds gradually encroaching on the strings to suggest damage infecting the natural”. (The Times)

“That’s also true in Pastoral Reflections, Prokofiev’s specific reaction to Beethoven’s symphony, where open textures and clean lines, expertly played by the Verbier musicians, balance field recordings from the Swiss Alps and the Viennese surroundings that inspired Beethoven”. (The Times)

Gabriel will be performing the Austrian premier of his new album ‘Breaking Screens’ in Vienna this Saturday (18-09-2021) at a brand new event called ‘Climate Nights’ at the legendary Pratersauna club. The event focuses on climate crisis awareness - so ‘Breaking Screens’ is ideally themed to open the night. Star violinist Yury Revich will be performing alongside musicians from the Music & Arts University (MUK).

Following the ‘Climate Nights’ event, Gabriel will also be giving a lecture, masterclass and concert at the Music & Arts University (MUK) as part of the ‘Sharing New Impulses’ festival.

More information about the lecture and masterclass can be found here.

Gabriel is proud to announce a new live project: 'Pastoral 21’ - a one hour musical discourse on the question ‘what does the concept of pastoral mean to us in this time of climate crisis?’. The world premier took place at Espace Saint Marc for the Verbier Festival on 29.07.21 and it is available to stream on both on Medici Tv and Idagio.

Composed for string sextet, live electronics & field recordings, this project started as a response to Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. It opens with the 1st movement of the Beethoven (arranged for sextet), which reminds us of our less troubled relationship with nature 250 years ago. Today of course, the concept of 'Pastoral' is bitter-sweet; we can still experience the beauty of nature, but the traces of humanity and industry are always present, and the spectre of the ever increasing climate crisis is looming...

The concert includes eight pieces from Gabriel’s new album ‘Breaking Screens’ which introduces topics of consumerism, digital life, and impending crisis, and it climaxes with ‘Pastoral Reflections’ a brand new composition which responds to Beethoven’s Pastoral model, using the same themes for each movement but from a very contemporary perspective: pastoral beauty is enjoyed but sadness and uncertainty are also present.

The new single ‘SEVEN STEPS’ from Gabriel’s forthcoming album with the OpenSoundOrchestra is out now on all digital platforms. In this track, Gabriel went back to his grime and electro production roots, but with a contemporary classical twist: incorporating string orchestra, and transforming the usual four beats into seven beats per bar.

The dance footage in the promo video for the track comes from ‘Spring’ by the Alexander Whitley Dance Company and Gandini Juggling for which the music from ‘BREAKING SCREENS’ was originally assembled. It was filmed in the Sadler’s Wells Theatre for the UK premiere, and it also toured Europe in 2018-2019.

The full album ‘BREAKING SCREENS’ will be released on 15/07/21.

STREAM on SPOTIFY

From June 2021 composer Gabriel Prokofiev will be managed by the London-based company Only Stage Ltd.

“Music is our language.
Taking care of our artists is a religion.
To support them to realise their visions is a must.
To create solutions for orchestras, organizations, promoters is our duty.
All what is around music and its significance is our mission”
(Susanna Stefani Caetani)

Worldwide Management Susanna Stefani Caetani
susanna@onlystage.co.uk
T: +44 7950 427967

 On the 17th of April, Gabriel performed the sampled choral electronics in his Beethoven9 Symphonic Remix live alongside Beethoven Orchester Bonn in the final concert of their special online streaming ‘Beethoven Pur’ series.

The livestream included a pre-concert talk with live musical excerpts from the orchestra showing the connections between the Beethoven9 Remix and Beethoven’s original symphony.

Streamed on MagentaMusik and conducted by Etienne Abelin.

Back in March, Gabriel composed the soundtrack for new Indian sci-fi series ‘Ok Computer’ which can be streamed on Disney Hotstar.

The directors Pooja Shetty, Neil Pagedar and Anand Gandhi have created something really remarkable and unique with this series. As a longtime sci-fi fan, Gabriel is often critical of new sci-fi films but their knowledge of the genre, brilliant imaginations, out-of-the-box maximal approach has created something so original and engaging.

From a musical perspective, Gabriel thoroughly enjoyed composing a broad mixture of orchestral score (performed on virtual instruments); a synth-driven electronic titles-theme; naïve Robot themes, and quirky prepared-piano. The production is backed up by some of the best talent in the film world: Sound design/mixing: Resul Pookutty, Production Designers: Prasun Basu, Gauri Tiwari, Cinematographer: Diego Guijarro, Editor: Charu Takkar.

STREAM on SPOTIFY

DIRECT from BIS RECORDS

‘Five Impressions of Self-Isolation’ was released on Hiyali Togawa’s stunning new album ‘Songs of Solitude’ on Bis Records.

Back in March 2020, when the world was just entering the first lockdown, conductor/composer Jose Serebrier contacted Gabriel about Hiyoli’s solo viola album: a project that would reflect on the new normal of solitude and no concerts that we were all experiencing. Gabriel was struggling to get the creative juices flowing in the restricted new life but writing the five impressions really helped him break out of a composer’s block.

The music is available to stream on Spotify and directly from Bis Records.

WATCH on YOUTUBE

On the 12th of February, Gabriel performed a thirty minute online streaming concert as part of the “All about Bach! Festival” - Only Stage digital season.

The first program of the digital project involved a series of chamber music concerts in which artists performed using technology and social media to share music all over the world. Gabriel’s performance presented Bach’s ‘The Musical Offering BWV 1079’ on analogue synths and samplers, joined by Viola player Hiyoli Togawa for the ‘Sarabande in D minor’.

“All about Bach! Festival” - Only Stage Digital Season

LISTEN ONLINE @ BBC Radio 3 website

One hundred years since the earliest electronic instruments began to appear, composer Gabriel Prokofiev explores how the advent of electronically generated sound has influenced how we make and listen to music. Over three episodes, Gabriel charts a personal journey through the key works that influenced his own composing style, and the impact electronics have had on contemporary classical music.

Aired in three episodes: i) Evolution of Electronically Generated Sound ii) Musique Concrete, Sampling & Found Sound. iii) The ubiquity of electronics, where next?

Produced by Alannah Chance. A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3

The series premieres on Sunday 10 January 2021 at 11PM GMT - on BBC Radio 3. With following episodes on 17th & 24th January.

It will be available as a Podcast on BBCSounds after broadcast.

DOWNLOAD & STREAM on BANDCAMP

STREAM on SPOTIFY

His first electronic-classical single in more than 5 years, SIX HESIT HEIST is a collision of orchestra and electronic clicks, synths, kicks, and field recording. It conjures images of inner-city-scapes, a sense of adventure, and a moment of escape above the city which uses a field recording Gabriel made in Seoul, South Korea - which is where the above photo was taken.

In need of some energised, beat-driven music to lift his spirits during lockdown, Gabriel came across an unused sketch from his recent, Ivors Award nominated ballet score, Sense of Time. It had a syncopated orchestral beat that fired up his inspiration, and within a few days it was a finished composition. While impossible to record an orchestra during lockdown, he had spent much of the year working with orchestral samples and decided to go against classical norms to use whatever was available to realise the track.

The end result is a 'post-covid orchestral' beat (in six) married with scattering electronic gestures, doubled analogue synth arpeggios, and evocative found sounds.

Gabriel's score for Sense of Time is one of three nominations for the Stage category of the Ivor Novello Composer Awards 2020. Commissioned by Birmingham Royal Ballet and choreographed by Didy Veldman in 2019, with performances at Birmingham Hippodrome & Sadler's Wells. Sense of Time travels through a series of scenes/instances: the urban rush hour, loneliness in the crowds, machine-like office workers at their screens, and those important moments of intimacy when we finally give time to our friends and family.

Sense of Time is scored for orchestra and electronics, controlled live by a pianist playing tough grime & techno inspired bass-lines, triggering filtered crowd sounds (recorded by Gabriel in street markets of Pointe-Noire, Seoul & London), computer-keyboard clicks, and even a vintage radio playing back a nostalgic waltz (those imagined 'good times'). Time is frozen, accelerated, and even reversed.

Watch: Sense of Time TRAILER

Watch: Gabriel discussing Sense of Time

Gabriel was invited to be a guest judge on the semifinal of this beautifully produced prime-time Central European TV show.

He joined judges Erika Miklósa, Nemanja Radulovic, Gabriela Bohacova, Peter Valentovic, Alicja Wegorzewska, preceding the other Super Judges: Maxim Vengarov, Thomas Gottschalk, and Placido Domingo to judge 10 remarkable young musicians from Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Serbia.

The program is broadcast November & December 2020, on national channels in the 5 competing countries, and on YouTube.

Watch the trailer for Virtuosos V4+

Watch full Virtuosos V4+ semifinal

DOWNLOAD & STREAM on BANDCAMP

STREAM on SPOTIFY

During a year of increased activity, the Nonclassical record label has released two really well-received 'Lock Down' compilation albums, featuring new compositions from young composers & musicians connected to Nonclassical, appropriately called ‘I hope this finds you well in these strange times’ vol.1 & vol.2.

Gabriel shares, "I was pleased to contribute a new piece I composed during the first week of lockdown in March 2020. It was one of several sketches I made for a larger work for percussionist Joby Burgess, all inspired by a re-reading of Asimov's brilliant Robot short stores, and an ongoing interest in AI and robots. The title 'Please Show You're Not a Robot' is probably familiar from the CAPTCHA tick box found on many websites. CAPTCHA is an acronym for 'Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart,' and its increasing prevalence is a reminder of how much AI has already infiltrated the Internet. This piece is one of the first works I've made with the Moffenzeef Modular System, an electronic instrument I got just before lockdown started. It has a module that generates sound using the chip from an old dial-up modem, with which I managed to create conversational-like phrases by using a partly randomised sequencer."

BBC Music Magazine: 5/5
’Gabriel Prokofiev's Concerto for Turntables No.1 dexterously brings together traditions old and new from seemingly antithetical cultures. Far more than a mash-up of classical orchestra and hip-hop, its stylistic spectrum embraces Baroque dance forms and 19th-century Romanticism - with a nod to then-fashionable piano duels - Stravinsky and jazz, as well as today's diverse urban street scene. The sense of spontaneity is carried into the Cello Concerto where five dramatic movements become three, arranged around the central Russia-focused Lento. From nervous agitation to playful delicacy and deep feeling, Andrianov emerges from the orchestra in a way which foregrounds Prokofiev's thoughtful optimism, so contrasting his grandfather's suffering, sardonic edge.’ Read the full review here.

Fanfare Magazine
’What I like best about this work is how it really doesn't fit comfortably within any one genre. It often has the energy of club music, and it sometimes appropriates the sounds of club music, but it would never be mistaken for actual club music. Similarly, it has the form and rigor of classical music, but it's clearly not like any classical music that you have ever heard.
The 2nd movement (of the Cello Concerto) was inspired by several family members who had a tough time of it (to say the least!) in the Soviet Union of the 1940s and 1950s. It is in this movement that we hear not just Gabriel Prokofiev's intelligence and originality, but also his beating heart. This is unsettling yet gorgeous music, weighted down by dread yet buoyed by the composer's luminous and creative orchestral writing.’

Readers Digest
Read Gabriel's interview with Readers Digest here.

The Arts Desk
Read Gabriel's self-penned article on the Turntables as a classical concerto instrument here.

The performance of Gabriel Prokofiev’s Concerto for Turntables at the BBC Proms in 2011 was a turning point in his career…

‘… the piece shook up what was expected of classical music, but when it was performed at the BBC Proms in August 2011 with world champion DJ Mr Switch as soloist, it met great critical acclaim. It's now become something of a modern classic and is performed in venues all over the world – whether that's a plush Victorian concert hall or an underground basement club in Hackney, it fits into both and that's what makes it so special’ bbc.co.uk

Recorded in Yekaterinburg, Russia, by Ural Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Alexey Bogorad, featuring 4 times WORLD DJ CHAMPION Mr. Switch on Turntables, and leading Russian Cellist Boris Andrianov featured in the Cello Concerto. This album is the first release of the full ‘symphonic version’ of the Concerto for Turntables that Gabriel created especially for the BBC Proms performance.

Gabriel Prokofiev’s Beethoven9 Symphonic Remix will be release on NAXOS Records on 27th March 2020, on a new album called Beethoven Reimagined, performed by BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Yaniv Segal.

The Times just gave it a 4-star review, writing that it is "an exciting 24-minute rampage by Gabriel Prokofiev...this outrageous but still loving remix certainly worked for me."

This piece (composed in 2011, originally commissioned by John Axelrod & ONPL) literally ‘remixes’ score of the last movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony; stretching, looping, inverting, augmenting phrases from the Beethoven original for the orchestra to play live, with the choral part sampled and played back as an electronics part by Gabriel.

Sadly the upcoming performances to celebrate the album release, at the Ludwig Van Beethoven Festival in Poland, with Yaniv Segal & 

Have been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. New performances are planned for September.

pre-order CD or digital: here. 

Gabriel recently performed his newly developed set for live electronics and string orchestra at Moscow's Zaryadye Hall.

The performance, set in this state of the art new concert hall in central Moscow was enthusiastically received by a sold-out house of young Muscovites. Gabriel was thrilled to work with the super dynamic Open Sound Orchestra, formed just last year by their conductor Stanislav Malyshev and lead cellist Olga Kalinova.
National TV coverage on TV Kultura: NEWS REPORT & INTERVIEW: 

Note to presenters and performers: this new program is now available to tour, in both string orchestra and small ensemble formats.

Bookended by 18 hours of train travel return trip to Switzerland, Gabriel presented import/export & Howl! with Joby Burgess at Verbier on 1st February 2020, and discussed ways in which composers can engage with the climate crisis.

More details are coming soon on a special commission for Verbier Music Festival in July, which focuses on our relationship with nature & the concept of ‘Pastoral’, which will connect to the international Pastoral Project.

Glowing review of Gabriel Prokofiev’s new Concertos album, in Gramophone Magazine:

‘The Bass Drum Concerto, premiered in 2012, is for me one of the best concertos written this century.’

Writes Pwyll ap Siôn in Gramophone Magazine, Oct 2019), which concludes; ‘The overall impression is of a tautly constructed and highly integrated work. While one could imagine any number of players taking up the Saxophone Concerto, Joby Burgess has made the Bass Drum Concerto his own, and the Ural Philharmonic under Alexei Bogorad clearly respond to the percussionist’s virtuoso treatment of an instrument that has resided in the lower reaches of the orchestral hierarchy for far too long.’

American magazine, Black Grooves, has issued an in depth review:

‘Throughout this concerto, Marsalis displays virtuosic talent while maintaining the utmost command of the instrument. With a style that’s free and spirited but also dark and powerful, he takes us from jazzy swing to contemporary classical music with hints of hip hop. The careful melodic interweaving of the alto saxophone with the orchestra is also a credit to the composer. Prokofiev’s Saxophone Concerto is an accomplished piece that is not simply a showcase for the saxophone, but also grows and breathes with the instrument to reach incredible moments.’

New Work for Septet & Modular Electronics previewed at November Music Festival, Netherlands

New Work for Septet & Modular Electronics previewed at November Music Festival, 2019.

Earlier in 2019, Gabriel visited the modular studio of producer Classical Mechanics. Enjoying the unique, custom-built modules of analogue and DIY-digital sound generators (in particular the very rare: SYSTEM MØFFENZEEF) of Classical Mechanics, Gabriel made a series of glitchy beats & rhythmic explorations. These then became the ground for a new chamber suite that directly combines the left field side of electronic dance music sounds & language with classical chamber music. Gabriel has suggested that this new work could be described as a: 

“baroque dance suite but for the 21st century, drawing of the dance rhythms of our time just as Couperin, then Mozart, Chopin, Bartok did in their day”

And he explains that: “yes, there are references to techno, acid-house, funk, hip-hop, but never in a tokenistic way… The Electronic Beats are completely integrated into the classical ensemble, and the combination of classical & dance genres is handled very carefully, and the results sound natural”.

The first part of this work was premiered & commissioned by the New European Ensemble at the November Music Festival in Den Bosch, 7th Nov 2019

In November 2019,  Gabriel Prokofiev headlined the fragrant village Music Festival, performing electronics alongside forward-thinking, local chamber music collective, the time crafters

5 days, 3 performances in 3 very diverse venues — from the ‘Terrible Baby’ night club, in Jordan district, to the Asia Society, to an outdoor stage facing the Hakka hamlet of San Tsuen's inlet bay. 

“Joining the musicians with laptop in hand, Prokofiev frequently followed live performances with alternative remixes, working different audiences like an experienced DJ. The same piece often varied according to the setting. Performed by the water, his Silente took on a nautical tone, with sampled crackling from vinyl records resembling waves and bass clarinet multiphonics sounding like sonar and a distant ship’s horn. Howl, a 2013 work for live soloist and electronics written during the Arab Spring, resonated heavily on Saturday as street violence escalated a few blocks away. Facing a peaceful waterfront the next day, the piece became less urgent, more contemplative.”

Review in Financial Times

In depth interview with South China Morning Post.

In depth interview with South China Morning Post.