Reel 2024

Stepan Sobanov was born in Novosibirsk in 1993 and raised in Vienna, where he lives ever since. His musical journey began with recorder and guitar, until he finally decided as a teenager to give up his second great passion, Judo, and dedicate himself entirely to music in the form of composition.

At the age of 15, Sobanov began piano and music theory lessons with Mag. Dan Zhou, himself chief conductor of the China National Theatre for Opera and Dance Drama. He studied Composition and Music Theory 2015-2017 and Media Composition and Applied Music 2017-2022, both at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

Since 2022, Sobanov has shared his knowledge and experience as a lecturer at the Vienna Music Institute, and as of 2024, he extends his expertise to the Raindance School of Film in London.

In 2018 Stepan Sobanov won the Univision Songcontest with his song Those Memories (sung by Marcharie).

He was a finalist at the Vienna Film Music Award 2020 with his scoring of the "Caviar" film sequence by Elena Tikhonova.

As a composer, Sobanov has had the privilege of writing new music for the big band "Nouvelle Cuisine", the Taiwanese "C-Camerata Taipei" ensemble, the principal violist of the Vienna Philharmonic, Christian Frohn, as well as other ensembles and solo artists.

In his work as an arranger he has collaborated with artists such as Nadine Sierra, Pretty Yende, Hyung-ki Joo, Olga Peretyatko, Joji Hattori, Josef Spacek, Sarah McElravy, Alexey Stadler and Benedikt Dinkhauser.

Stepan Sobanov produced music for the video game Tilt Pack, additional music for the TV series Tatort Borowski, and the artists Polly Roel and Marcharie.