Elena Artamonova

Dr Elena Artamonova serves as a Lecturer in Russian Studies at the University of Central Lancashire's School of Psychology and Humanities. She is an active member of both the Vladimir Vysotsky Centre for Slavonic Studies and the Lancashire Research Centre for Migration, Diaspora and Exile (MIDEX). With over 20 years of teaching experience, Dr Artamonova successfully combines scholarly work with professional viola performance.

Her research interests focus on Russian music history, particularly Soviet-era composers and the cultural exchange between Russia and Britain. Dr Artamonova specializes in archival research on composers including Grigori Frid, Rudolf Barshai, Sergei Vasilenko, and Vladimir Rebikov. Her work reveals significant connections between Russian musical traditions and Western reception, with particular attention to viola repertoire and performance practices. She examines how political contexts, especially during the Soviet period and WWII, influenced musical creation and transmission.

Dr Artamonova's scholarly output demonstrates consistent engagement with historical musicology, cultural studies, and performance research. Her publications reveal a distinctive pattern of uncovering previously unknown archival materials related to Russian composers, particularly those with connections to Britain. She has made significant contributions to understanding the viola repertoire through her research on composers like Frid, Grechaninov, and Vasilenko, whose works were largely neglected until her scholarly interventions.

As a performing musician, Dr Artamonova has recorded several albums featuring Russian viola works for Toccata Classics, including complete music for viola and piano by Grigori Frid, Alexander Grechaninov, and Sergei Vasilenko. These recordings have brought previously obscure repertoire to international attention and demonstrate her dual expertise as both scholar and performer.

Dr Artamonova actively participates in international academic collaboration through her involvement with the Vladimir Vysotsky Centre for Slavonic Studies and MIDEX research centers. Her work bridges disciplinary boundaries between musicology, cultural history, and performance studies, creating innovative approaches to understanding Russian musical heritage and its global reception.