Nikolai Fedorovich Fedorov

Nikolai Nikolayevich Karetnikov (1930 – 1994) was a Russian composer of the so-called Underground – alternative or nonconformist group in Soviet music. Karetnikov studied at the Central Musical School (1942-1948) and the Moscow Conservatory (1948-1953) where his teachers were Vissarion Shebalin (composition), Tatyana Nikolaeva (piano), Igor Sposobin and Viktor Tsukkerman (theory). He also studied privately with Philip Herschkowitz, a pupil of Berg and Webern. He was influenced by music of the New Viennese school and was a firm supporter of twelve-tone technique. The authorities found his music unacceptable. It was criticized, and then banned from performances in the Soviet Union for decades.