The world premiere of the Third symphony «The Willow Tree» by Akhmat Malkanduev took place in the Mariinsky Theater (Saint Petersburg) under the direction of Valery Gergiev

Akhmat Malkanduev graduated from Saratov State L.V. Sobinov Conservatoire, where he studied under Professor Vladimir S. Mishlee. He is the author of compositions for orchestra, chamber ensemble and choir. Some of them were premiered in Saratov. Among them are The First symphony «The Mingy Tau»; the Second symphony «The Mistletoe»; opera «Love story of Takhir and Zukhra»; «Concerto grosso» for two solo violins, bells, string orchestra and percussions; symphony poem «Mountains keep silent but remember…» for Caucasian harmonica, string orchestra and piano; «Three choirs to poems of Kaysin Kuliev» and many other compositions. At present Akhmat Malkanduev works in North-Caucasus State Institute of Arts as teacher at History and Theory of Music Department. He is also a member of The Union of Composers of Russia and Youth Policy Council of the Head of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic. In 2024 he became the Honoured Artist of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic.

Akhmat Malkanduev’s new symphony is dedicated to the Second World War and the frontline friendship between Balkarian poet Kaysin Kuliev and Kabardinian poet Alim Keshokov. They went through all the roads of the war together, and when K. Kuliyev was wounded in 1944, A. Keshokov carried him on his shoulders from the battlefield. As the composer says, «During the war, their friendship was seriously tested, and the day when they were lying in the tall grass, crying, trying to hide their tears from others, became the starting point in writing my new work». The image of a weeping willow tree conveys the emotional state in which the symphony was created.