It has been announced that Russian composer Dmitri Smirnov has passed away on April 9, 2020, due to the coronavirus. Born on November 2, 1948 in Minsk, Belarus, Smirnov grew up in a family of opera singers, himself going on to study at the Moscow Conservatory from 1967 to 1972. As a composer, Smirnov penned two operas based on texts {…}