Airat Ichmouratov

Airat Ichmouratov is active as a composer, conductor, and clarinetist. His compositions, in a neo-Romantic style sometimes influenced by klezmer music, have been performed in many countries. Ichmouratov was born on June 28, 1973, in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, in what was then the Soviet Union. His first instrument was the clarinet, which he studied at local schools in Kazan, the Kazan Music College, and the Kazan Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1996. By that time, he had already become associate clarinetist of the Tatarstan Opera and Ballet Theatre and of the Kazan State Orchestra and had begun to embark on European tours as a clarinetist. In 1997, Ichmouratov traveled to Canada to take lessons at the Orford Arts Centre Festival in Quebec. There, he met cellist and conductor Yuli Turovsky, who became a mentor and steered him toward orchestral conducting. Moving permanently to Montreal in 1998, Ichmouratov enrolled at the University of Montreal, where he earned master's and doctoral degrees in conducting, the latter in 2005. He co-founded the Muczynski Trio, a clarinet-cello-and-piano ensemble, and also the klezmer group Kleztory. Ichmouratov made his recording debut with the latter group in 2004; the album Klezmer teamed Kleztory with the early music group I Musici de Montréal, with Turovsky as conductor, and appeared on the major Chandos label. Ichmouratov would later conduct that group himself on a tour of the U.S., Brazil, and Peru as a substitute for Turovsky. He also served as assistant conductor -- under Bernard Labadie -- of the Quebec City historical performance group Les Violons du Roy, and from 2009 to 2011, he served as resident conductor of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra. He has remained active in his homeland as well, leading operatic productions at the Tatarstan Academic State Opera and Ballet Theatre. In the 2010s, Ichmouratov increasingly often devoted his efforts to composition. His works, many in the concerto genre, have been heard in many countries, including Tatarstan (now part of Russia), Poland, and Taiwan. They have attracted such major performers as violinist Maxim Vengerov, conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Toronto Symphony concertmaster Jonathan Crow. In 2023, the Chandos label and the London Symphony Orchestra released an album featuring Ichmouratov's Piano Concerto and Viola Concerto No. 1, with Ichmouratov himself as the conductor.
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