About the author

Andrey KNYSHEV

writer/ director / satirist / musician

Unlike his literary and television works, Andrey Knyshev’s MUSIC does not belong to the field of humor, but on the contrary, his lyrical and melodic compositions can be attributed more to the genres of piano chamber music, easy listening and piano-lounge, with new-age elements. His “piano moods” are quite cinematic, so some filmmakers use these melodies as sound tracks in documentaries and TV programs.

Andrey has been playing the piano and composing music since his youth. Being a non-professional musician, Knyshev does not write notes on paper, but composes and plays his musical pieces exclusively from memory, sometimes improvising a little.

In collaboration with well-known music professionals, A. Knyshev has created harmonious and high-quality arrangements of his piano pieces. Among his creative partners: cellist Borislav Strulev, French horn player Arkady Shilkloper, composer and pianist Alexander Rosenblat, composer and producer Alexander Goldstein, sound producer Ivan Evdokimov, composer and arranger Sergey Petukhov, singer Victoria Dmitrieva-Goldstein.

Andrey also has a friendly and creative relationship with the famous American pianist and composer, GRAMMY award nominee David Lanz. At his invitation in the 90s Andrey recorded a demo tape of his musical pieces in David’s home Studio in Seattle, and with whose recommendation he negotiated with the famous new-age music label “NARADA Productions” to record his music.

TELEVISION

Author-Creator, co-Director and host of one of the most popular and avant-garde humorous TV series “Funny Guys” on Soviet and perestroika TV (1980-1991), which garnered a Prime-time audience of up to 100 million people.
Co-Director, co-host and composer of the special 90-minute program “The Art of Good Will” (produced by PBS, USA, 1990), which was awarded an American television EMMY award (Northwest Regional) in the category “Best Informational Special”.
Director, co-author and co-host of the documentary “Democracy In Action/ Inaction” (PBS, 1992), which covered the U.S. presidential election campaign.
Author and presenter of one of the films of British documentary series “Russian Wonderland” (BBC-2, 1995).
Author of scripts, Director, host, as well as guest and participant of various TV programs, stories and shows from 1978 to the present (“Vzglyad/View”, “Before and After Midnight”, “Addresses of the Young”, ” Salute, Festival!”, “Staryj Televizor/Old TV”, “Nochnaya Smena/Night shift”, “O.S.P. Studio”, “Chas Pik/Rush Hour”, “Theme”, “200 Pleasures”, “Duplkich”, “Showgodno”, “Serious Men”, “Vechernyj Urgant”, and many others.)
In 1989, during the perestroika years, he was the first Soviet journalist to make a TV report from the NATO’s army headquarters in the Netherlands (“Here it is, the Dutch army!”, Central Television, USSR).

BOOKS

Author of four best-selling humorous and satirical books:
- “Also a Book” (“Tozhe Kniga”), 1991
- “Pricks of the Pen” (“Ukoly Pera”), 1998
- “Table Calendar For One Hundred Years” ( “Nastolnyj Calendar Na Sto Let”), 2001
- “Squats and Tiptoes” (“Kortochki and Tsypochki”), 2016 (multimedia interactive edition).
For his book of satirical and humorous miniatures “Also a Book” (published in 1991, with 200,000 copies sold), he was awarded the “Golden Ostap” award in the category “Best Humorist Writer”.
In 2019, a special limited edition “Table Calendar 2020″was published.
A. Knyshev is one of the most cited authors of aphorisms in Russia.

More information about Andrey Knyshev’s book, TV, radio and other projects can be found in the relevant sections of the site (under development).

RADIO

Art Director of the humorous and satirical Internet radio “Chiplduk” (4duk.ru) channel, broadcasting around the clock on the Internet since 2007.
In 2013, A. Knyshev represented Radio Chiplduk from Russia at the annual representative international media forum «Radiodays Europe» in Berlin, where this unusual and bizarre project attracted the attention of professionals and was describedas the “Russian Monty Python on the radio”.
In 2020, Radio Chiplduk took 1st place in the rating list of Russian-language online radio channels, among almost 1,000 websites reviewed with a total number of about 10,000 radio streams (according to revoice.ru)

MUSIC

As a composer, A. Knyshev recorded his music for the American television program “The Art Of Good Will” (produced by PBS), filmed during the Goodwill Games (1990) in Seattle. It was awarded the American television EMMY award (Northwest Regional) in the category “Best Informational Special”. Andrey was also its co-producer and co-host.
In 2015-2016, he released a music CD in Russia, “NENAIGRANNOE. Piano Moods”.
Andrey Knyshev’s melodies are heard on radio (Vera, Russia, Silver Rain, Mayak), and have been used in a number of documentaries (“Cambridge Graduate”, 1989; “Dedication”, 1990; “Life is Coming to a Beginning”, 2016, Channel 1TV, etc.) and various TV programs.
In 2017, Andrey Knyshev’s tune “Train to Paris” was selected and arranged for the American-French music CD “WALTZ FOR PAUL MAURIAT” and recorded in Paris by the Grand Orchestra of Jean-Jacques Justafré.
In February 2020, the American record label Composers Concordance Records (distributed by NAXOS, the leading online distributor of classical music) presented a digital album by Andrey Knyshev “SINCERELY MINE”, an international version of A. Knyshev’s CD “Nenaigrannoe”, supplemented by two bonus tracks and available for download at major online music stores.