Sergey
Letov was born in Semipalatinsk, Eastern Kazakhstan, in 1956 and then
lived in Omsk, Siberia, where lived his brother Egor Letov.
Sergey Letov resides in Moscow region since 1975.
The first public performance as a soloist with Percussion Ensemble of Mark Pekarsky took place in The Central House of Artist in 1982 in Moscow .
1983-1993 - collaboration with Sergey
Kuryokhin (duo, combo and big band
POP MECHANICS). Concerts with POP-MECHANICS and Sergey Kuryokhin - all
over Soviet Union, Finland, Italy, France, Denmark.
Since 1986 - collaboration with the Gypsy singer Valentina
Ponomareva. Duo Ponomareva-Letov performed in USSR, Switzerland, took part in FILM 'THE FRUITS OF DESIRES AND CATCHING LIZARDS ON THE BACKGROUND OF MOUNT ARARAT' (1988, USSR).
In 1985 Sergey Letov has founded winds ensemble TRI-O (Arcady Shilkloper - French horn, Arcady Kiritchenko - tuba, euphonium, vocal, later - Alexander Alexandrov - bassoon, Youry Parfenov- trumpet). TRI-O performed at almost every jazz festival in USSR, since 1988 TRI-O played in Poland, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Lithuania (Vilnius Jazz Festival), Germany, Austria, Italy, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, USA, including such clubs as Knitting Factory, Anyway (New York), Bimhuis (Amsterdam), Moods (Zurich), Sud des Alpes (Geneva), Blue Tomato (Vienna).
Sergey Letov is interested in various projects, contacts, new partnerships. Among them - German World music band EMBRYO (CD - EMBRYO 2000 live vol. 1 Indigo 9753-2), Danish band NEW JUNGLE ORCHESTRA (concerts in Denmark, Germany and Russia), Italian composer and bass player Enrico Fazio (concert-performance in Noci Jazz Festival, 2 CDs), American viola and violin player LaDonna (concerts in USA and Russia), cello player Tristan Honsinger, pianist Matthew Shipp, bass player Joe Morris, South African drummer Louis Moholo, German saxophone player Vlad Bysrov, Vlad Kreimer, Viktor Sologub, a.o.
Sergey Letov participated in happenings and performances of Moscow conceptualists - Collective Actions, later with Andrei Monastyrsky, and TOTART since 1984, with Rea Nikonova since 1995, played at many art exhibitions in the galleries in Moscow, Bremen, Berlin, Smolensk.
Sergey Letov performed also with modern poets and writers: Nina Iskrenko, Dmitry Alexandrovich Prigov, Lev Rubinstein, Nina Sadur, Andrei Bitov, Vyacheslav Kupriyanov, Sergey Birjukow, Anna Alchuk, Vladimir Druk, Tatiana Scherbina, Nikolay Baitov and Svetlana Litvak, Yulia Skorodumova, Elena Katsiuba, Liudmila Hodynskaia, Erkki Lappalainen (Finland-Sweden), Marina Kniazeva, Lesya Tyshkovska, Anna Goncharova, Yulia Mamocheva, Dmitry Vodennikov, Maria Vatutina, Yury Tatarenko. I. In a duo with Alexander Alexandrov he participated in the international festival MILANOPOESIA-91 (Italy). Solo in the videoproject by Vladimir Kupreyanov at ART ATHINA-2007 (Athens, Greece).
Since 2002 Sergey Letov plays in Saxophone Quartet (or sometimes trio) Russian Sax Mafia (tours over Russia, Germany, Lithuania, Great Britain).
In 2002 Sergey Letov started Malevich Project, and later with Alexei Borisov and Ivan Sokolovsky - Suprematistic Project (fashion design + audio/video).
Since 1984 Sergey Letov played and plays with rock and alternative bands, such as
Aquarium, Centre, DK, Alissa, DDT, Vesyolye Kartinki, Doctor, Nochnoi
Prospect, Atonal Syndrom, Soft Animals and
Ivan Sokolovsky, Grazhdanskaya Oborona and Egor Letov, 25/17, A.F. Sklyar and Va-Bank, Rada and Ternovnik, Olga Arefyeva, "Adaptatsia" (Kazakhstan), Gromyka (Petrozavodsk), Vadim Pevzner, Kaftan Smeha, HLAM, Tatar band Juna, Branimir, "Affinage", 7B and rapper Rich.
Since 1986 Sergey Letov collaborates with actress Nika Kossenkova. In the 1988-1989 he worked
in Theatre of Improvisation in Moscow, in 1990-1991 in Moscow Creative
Workshops (Mikhail Mokeev), in 1989-1992 and then since 1996 in the School
of Dramatic Art of Anatoly Vassiliev, in 1991-1992 in Centro Sperimentale
di Teatro a Roma (Sharoo and Reza Kheradmand), in 1991-1992 with clown
company "Licedei-4" in France, Taganka Theatre since
1996 - "Moscow- Petushki" (Valentin Ryzhiy) and "Marat and Marquis de Sade" (Yuriy Lyubimov), Kinetic
Theatre of Sasha Pepelaev (1997-1998), Saumarkt
Theater in Feldkirch, Austria in 1998 - Hochzeitsreise by Vladimir Sorokin (Andreas Marent), Moscow Art Academic Theatre (MKhT by A.P. Chekhov) - 1999-2000,
Theatre "Chelovek" in Moscow - 2001 - 2017 - "Entre
Nous" by Ionesco, Kharms, Valer Novarina, Moscow Dramatic Theatre after name of NIkolai Gogol - "A Picture Of Dorian Gray" (2022), a.o. Sergey Letov appears as Tiresias in "Antigone - Forever" by Sophocles (2008). Since 2018 - stage music for the 'Tragedy 'Vladimir Mayakovsky' by Leonid and Marina Krasnov. 2019 - music for series of 12 performances "The Season of Poems" at Moscow Art Theater named after A.M. Gorky, role of Sansho in multimedia-opera by Jun Kawasaki "Sansho The Bailiff" at Music and Poetic Drama Laboratory (Almaty, Kazakhstan and Seoul, Korea). 2020 - music for Theatre performance "Caution, fables!" in Moscow Theatre 'ETC. (in collaboration with Vladimir Nelinov). 2021 - participation in Theatre project 'Harms.DOC' by Wojcech Urbanski. 2022 - music for "The Picture Of Dorian Gray" at Moscow Dramatic Gogol Theatre.
Another form of Sergey Letov' activities is composing and playing music
for cinema (Aleinikov brothers, Savva Kulish a. o.), video, Radio and TV (more than 10 movies). Since 1996 Sergey Letov start to play music for Russian, Soviet, German, French, Japanese, American, Danish and Polish silent films. The program SILENT MOVIE -
LIVE MUSIC by Sergey Letov was awarded a grant of the President of
the Russian Federation for Culture and Art in 2010. Silent films with live music by Sergey Letov were presented at Germany, Great Britain, France, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Poland, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and all over the Russia and were broadcast (recorded version) on the Russian Federal TV channel "Culture" RTR
The program Electronic Breath was awarded Sergey Kuryokhin premium in 2014.
Sergey Letov plays sopranino, soprano, C-melody, tenor, baritone saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, piccolo, alto and bass flutes, tarogato, kurai, shakuhachi, Akai EWI USB, Akai EWI 4000s, Roland Aerophone AE10, AE20, AE30 Pro.
Since 2004 till 2021 Sergey Letov lectured on modern music at Institute of Journalism and Literary Creativity in Moscow, 2019 - in British Higher School of Art & Design, 2020 - Literary courses of Zakhar Prilepin.