Victor Kissine was born in March 15,1953 in Saint Petersburg (when it was still called Leningrad). He graduated from Saint-Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, where he studied with professor M. Druskin. In 1981, he received a PhD in musicology from the same conservatory.
In 1990 Kissine settled with his family in Belgium.
Kissine’s catalogue includes works for symphony orchestra and concertos, chamber music for soloists and ensembles, vocal and choral works, two operas and ballets, as well as numerous film scores.
Between 1998 and 2002 he was a composer-in-residence of the Belgian ensemble Musiques Nouvelles. In 2002 this ensemble and the pianist Boyan Vodenitcharov recorded his Chamber Music CD.
Since 2001 Victor Kissine has been working closely with Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica Orchestra. Gidon Kremer premiered his chamber violin concerto Barcarola (2007) and the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (2012) as well as numerous chamber compositions and transcriptions.
Kissine’s first violin concerto, After-sight was premiered, in two different versions, by the New World Symphony (2005) and the San Francisco Symphony (2007), with Alexander Barantschik as soloist.
In 2010 his symphonic work Post-scriptum commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony was premiered under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas at Davies Hall, SF as well as at the Carnegie Hall, New York and the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.
Several of Kissine’s works were written for the pianist Vladimir Feltsman, such as the Piano Quartet Still Life (2003) commissioned by the Chamber Society of Lincoln Center, New York
His orchestral works have also been commissioned or premiered by the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach and the Berlin Komische Oper conducted by Mirga Grazinyté-Tyla, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, the Dusseldorf and Jena Philharmonic Orchestras conducted by Andrey Boreyko, the Stuttgart Staatsorchester conducted by Sylvain Cambreling, the State Orchestra Svetlanov with Vladimir Jurowski and St-Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra with Vladimir Feltsman, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine conducted by Roman Kofman. Other premieres took place all around the Europe including the Berlin Philharmonie with Gidon Kremer and Martha Algerich, Amsterdam Concertgebouw with Janine Jansen, the Philharmonies of Munich, Köln, Hamburg, Prague, Zürich, Paris, Milan and the festivals of Salzburg, Lockenhaus (where he was composer-in-residence in 2004 and 2011), Ars Musica (Belgium), Musica (France), La Jolla, Music Mountain (US), and ISCM World Days.
The Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition commissioned him the compulsory work for 2012 violin competition and invited him as a jury member for the 2019 and 2024 violin session.
His discography includes three disks at ECM, among which the monographic Between two waves (2013), recorded by Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica. In 2011, the recording by Gidon Kremer, Giedré Dirvanauskaité and Khatia Buniatichvili of his second Piano Trio, Zerkalo (Mirror) received the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.
Victor Kissine was awarded the Tokyo Irino Prize Foundation in 1995 and the Paris Académie de Lutèce prize in 1993. In 2008 he was elected member of the Royal Academy of Belgium.
Kissine’s works are edited by Belaieff-Schott as well as by Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag and G.Henle Verlag.
He taught musical analysis and orchestration at the Royal Conservatory of Mons (1998 - 2018) and was a professor (1998 - 2023) at the INSAS (a graduate institute in Brussels for film, theatre, and broadcasting arts).