Wladzimir Vasil'yevich Darokhin

Wladzimir Vasil'yevich Darokhin, born in Slonim, Grodno district, on 1 January 1948, is one of the Belarusian composers of the second half of the twentieth century. He trained at the Leningrad Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1973 after studying composition with Vladislav Uspensky. His significance lies in the way he combined Western influences with national tradition across a career that moves from the polytonality of his early years to neo-Romanticism.

Between 1978 and 1989 he served as secretary of the board of the Union of Composers of Belarus, and in 1989 he began teaching at the National Conservatory in Minsk. In 1988 he was awarded the title of Honoured Worker of the Arts of the Belarusian SSR.

His works from the early 1970s show two opposing currents: the instrumental pieces reflect the imprint of the Second Viennese School and the Polish avant-garde, while the vocal works draw closer to the so-called 'new simplicity' of Sviridov. The First Symphony is a polystylistic collage incorporating folk music, echoes of the nineteenth century and contemporary light music. The Second Symphony, atonal, reinterprets dramatic and lyrical concepts from a Baroque aesthetic, with solo writing and polyphonic structures.

At the beginning of the 1980s there was a turn towards neo-Romanticism, with works of a programmatic and nationalist bent that employ nineteenth-century forms with a contemporary harmonic language.

Within this period, Pastoral', Memariyalï and the Third Symphony, Frantsïsk Skarïna, stand out, in which national and historical themes receive a philosophical and lyrical treatment. His evolution, from polystylism to monostylism, is marked by a constant search for emotional expression. His catalogue, which includes choral, symphonic and chamber works, establishes Darokhin as a representative voice of Belarusian music in the post-Soviet era.