Born in Tomsk, he graduated from the city’s University in 1951, with a diploma in mathematics (functional analysis). In 1951–1959 he studied composition with Vissarion Shebalin at the Moscow Conservatory, of which he was a faculty member from 1960, teaching music theory, instrumentation, and, no sooner than towards the end of his life (from 1992), also composition.
In the 1960s Denisov became one of the leaders of national avant-garde. He worked very intensively in a wide range of chamber music genre and made significant theoretical research, being one of the first in his country to write about modern compositional principles. The performance, in 1964 in Leningrad, of his chamber cantata The Sun of the Incas proved a breakthrough in his career, winning him wide international recognition, notably in France, the United States, Great Britain and Poland. From the 1970s onwards, Denisov turned his attention to large-scale instrumental forms. The highlights in his career were the premieres of the ballet Confession in Tallinn (1984), the Requiem in Hamburg (1980), and the opera L’Ecume des jours after Boris Vian (1986) and the Symphony No. 1 (1987) in Paris. Several of his works were performed during Warsaw Autumn festivals well before the 1989 political breakthrough.
Denisov regularly took part in the work of the juries of major international competitions for composers in Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Great Britain, Belgium, France and Germany. He also gave master-classes in Lucerne and other towns.
In 1990–91 he worked at the electronic studio of ircam in Paris, where he composed his electroacoustic piece Sur la nappe d’un étang glacé. >From 1990 he served as Chairman of the Russian Society for Contemporary Music.
He died in Paris, where he settled in 1994.

Selected works (since 1985): Three Pictures of Paul Klee for viola, oboe, horn, vibraphone, piano and double bass (1985), Viola Concerto (1986), Quatre filles, chamber opera based on a play by P. Picasso (1986), Oboe Concerto (1986), String Quartet (1987), Clarinet Quintet (1987), two symphonies (1987, 1996), Bells in the Mist for orchestra (1988), Au plus haut de cieux for voice and chamber orchestra with words by
G. Bataille (1986), Der Weihnachtsstern for voice, flute, viola and string orchestra with words by B. Pasternak (1989), Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra (1991), Four Pieces for String Quartet (1991), Sur la nappe d’un étang glacé... for nine instruments and tape (1991), Points and Lines for two pianos eight hands (1991), Concerto for Flute, Vibraphone and Harpsichord (1993), Postludio in memoriam W. Lutosławski for chamber orchestra (1994), Chamber Symphony No. 2 (1994), The Woman and Birds for wind quartet, string quartet and piano (1996).

The Woman and Birds
The work was written for the 10th anniversary of the festival Dresdner Tage der zeitgenössischen Musik. It is scored for wind and string quartets and piano. Both quartets are interpreted as two independent sound layers, while the piano gives the impression of the soloist’s free improvisation and his dialogue with the quartets.
The piece is sub-titled Hommage ą Joan Miró. Joan Miró and Paul Klee were Denisov’s favourite 20th-century painters.
Denisov explored the ‘Woman and Bird’ theme many times and in various versions (The Woman and Birds, The Woman surrounded by Flying Birds, The Woman and Bird in the Night, The Woman and Bird in the Barcelona Park, etc.). This piece has no programme, even though its main ideas were inspired by painting. Colour is presented either by sound layers or ‘points’. Together with the musical graphics, it always carries the main musical information. There are no direct allusions to Miró’s painting; it is simply a musical analogy to the picture. Musical space in the piece is very special, while the bird of the title is far from the interpretations known from works by Messiaen.