Born in 1972 in Moscow, he graduated from the Pyotr Tchaikovsky State Conservatoire in Moscow and later studied composition with Jörg Herchet at the High School of Music in Dresden and Friedrich Goldmann at the University of the Arts in Berlin. Since 1994 his music has been performed by such ensembles as the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Klangforum Wien, MusikFabrik, Ensemble Mosaik, ensemble recherche, Ensemble 2e2m, as well as soloists: Christan Tetzlaff, Natalia Pschenitschnikowa, Marcus Weiss, Daniel Gloger, and Jakob Diehl, at such wellknown contemporary music festivals as the Donaueschinger Musiktage, Wien Modern, Musica Viva, Milano Musica, La Biennale di Venezia, the Warsaw Autumn, ECLAT, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, MaerzMusik, Ultraschall, and Klangspuren Schwaz, under the baton of such celebrated conductors as Titus Engel, Emilio Pomarico, Philipp Chizhevsky, and Enno Poppe. 

He has received commissions notably from Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Konzerthaus Berlin, Ruhrtriennale, SWR, Deutschlandradio, Klangforum Wien, ensemble recherche, and Musik der Jahrhunderte. The opera Secondhand-Zeit, based on the novel Second-Hand Time by the Belarusian Nobel prize-winner Svetlana Alexievich, was premiered in February 2020 at the Stuttgart Opera under the musical direction of Titus Engel. His “documentary opera” Die Einfachen (The Simple Ones) on the gay subculture of 1920s Leningrad was given its premiere in 2021 at the Biennale Musica in Venice, in a production directed by Ilya Shagalov. 

Newski’s numerous scholarships and awards include the Berlin Art Prize (2014) and membership of the Saxon Academy of Arts in Dresden (2022). He lives in Berlin. 

Selected works: J’étais d’accord for vocal ensemble and electronics (2000), Fluss for speaker and ensemble (2003), Autland, music theatre for six soloists and choir (2009), Franziskus, music theatre (2012), Pazifik Exil, documentary opera for six soloists and electronics (2016), Cloud Ground for violin and orchestra (2016), 18 Episodes for orchestra and tape (2019), Boris (Second-Hand Time), an opera (2020), Die Einfachen, documentary music theatre for five singers, four actors and video (2021), Stufen der Ideen for narrator and string orchestra (2021), Eyewitness Evidence for five voices, piano and percussion (2022), Ensembletrilogie for ensemble, electronics and video (2021–23), Göttin der Geschichte for mezzo-soprano and orchestra (2024).