In this interview, Ufa-based composer, musi­cologist, conductor, and teacher Azamat Khasan­shin recounts about his life, studies, versatile musical activities and perspectives on the present-day situation in terms of the receptivity of contemporary music in Russia. Khasanshin was born in Ufa and studied composition at the Moscow State Conservatory with A. S. Lehman, then musicology as a graduate student under V. V. Zaderatskiy. After his return to Ufa, he began teaching composition and orchestration at Zagir Ismagilov Institute of Arts, founded the early and contemporary music ensemble “OPUS,” and continued his research into the phenomenology of music. The composer describes his own creative evolution—from the predominant influence of the European avant-garde to its fusion with Bashkir national characteristics. The latter are especially expressed in his cycle of three symphonies on historical and philosophical themes. Stockhausen’s concept of “moment form” is of particular importance to Khasanshin, and he has been actively developing it in recent years. In his reflections on the fate of contemporary music he negatively evaluates the level of dissemination of new music in Russia’s regions. Khasanshin concludes: the most important thing for a contemporary composer today is to achieve unity between compositional writing and aesthetic expression.