Alexey Retinsky was born in 1986 in Simferopol, Crimea. Retinsky began his musical training with playing wind instruments. He graduated from the Simferopol School of Music, mastering the oboe, saxophone and trumpet. In parallel, he began to study composition autodidactically. Later on, he studied composition and electroacoustic composition at the Kiev Music Academy and the Zurich University of the Arts (under Prof. Bruno Karrer and Prof. German Toro-Perez). In 2013-2014, he was working in the field of composition and audio design with a focus on multi-channel music in the sound studio “Idee und Klang” (CH; Basel). He completed his postgraduate studies with Prof. Beat Furrer at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz. Since 2020, he has been living and working between Vienna and St. Petersburg.
Retinsky’s oeuvre is broad and diverse; he creates symphonic, chamber and electronic music, as well as music for theatre, film, installation and performance art. His music works and various projects have been performed at the Mariinsky Theater (RU), National Philharmonic of Ukraine, MuseumsQuartier in Vienna, Museum Joanneum Graz (AT), Dresdner Zwinger (GE), and at the Festivals CIME/ICEM Denton (USA), MDR Musiksommer Eisenach (DE), Musik der zeitgenössischen Komponisten in Luzern (CH), Gaudeamus Muziekweek (NL) and many others. He has collaborated with such musicians and collectives as MusicAeterna and Teodor Currentzis, SWR Orchestra, State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation and Vladimir Jurowski, Antoni Baryshevski (UA), Luigi Gaggero (FR), Jean-Bernard Matter (FR); the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Keuris Saxophon Quartett (NL).

In 2019, the composer received a grant to work on electronic music at the Southwest German Radio Experimental Studio in Stuttgart (SWR). In 2020, by decision of the Austrian State Department for Culture and Art, Alexey Retinsky was awarded one of three state awards for composition. At the invitation of Teodor Currentzis, Alexei Retinsky in 2020 becomes the first resident of the musicAeterna collective and moves from Austria to Russia. Since the beginning of 2021, Alexey has become a resident of the Alma Mater Worldwide Foundation.

His musical language seems peculiar in that it is distant from the tradition of the avant-garde and the so-called ‘minimalism’, despite the fact that the formal characteristics of the two can be found within his oeuvre. His experimental electroacoustic music often presents a different “music culture” as it aims to unite and transform a multitude of musical streams into a holistic experience. The term “music culture” in this context encompasses both the temporal and the geographic dimensions. Retinsky sees it as self-evident to try to revert the musical expression in all genres back to its original ritual meaning and create a connection between the listeners and musicians.