Peter Zinovieff
Peter Zinovieff (26 January 1933 – 23 June 2021) was a British composer, musician and inventor. In the late 1960s, his company, Electronic Music Studios (EMS), made the VCS3, a synthesizer used by many early progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd[3] and White Noise, and Krautrock groups[4] as well as more pop-orientated artists, including Todd Rundgren and David Bowie. In later life, he worked primarily as a composer of electronic music.
Peter Zinovieff
23 June 2021 (aged 88)
Composer, musician, inventor
Co-founder, EMS
- Tanya Richardson
- Jenny Jardine
7, including Sofka Zinovieff
Leo Zinovieff
Sofka, née Princess Sophia Dolgorouky
Robert Heber-Percy (father-in-law)
Early life and education[edit]
Zinovieff was born on 26 January 1933;[5] his parents, Leo Zinovieff and Sofka, née Princess Sophia Dolgorouky, were both Russian aristocrats, who met in London after their families had emigrated to escape the Russian Revolution and soon divorced.[6] During World War II, he and his brother Ian lived with their grandparents in Guildford and then with their father in Sussex. He attended Guildford Royal Grammar School, Gordonstoun School and Oxford University, where he earned a doctorate in geology.[7][8]
Awards[edit]
In 2015 Zinovieff was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree by Anglia Ruskin University.[57]
Personal life[edit]
In 1960, Zinovieff married Victoria Heber-Percy, daughter of Robert Heber-Percy and Jennifer Ross; in 1978, he married Rose Verney. He later married Tanya Richardson, and was survived by his fourth wife, Jenny Jardine.[58] He had seven children: Sofka, Leo, Kolinka, Freya, Katia, Eliena, and Kyril, who died in 2015.[58]
Zinovieff died on the night of 23 June 2021. He was 88, and had been hospitalised ten days earlier after falling at his home.[58][59]