Nikolaï Khrust (b. 1982, Moscow) is a composer, sound designer, and PhD, currently based in France. He completed his composition studies and postgraduate training at the Moscow Conservatory under Prof. Vladimir Tarnopolski.

He has participated in major international programs for contemporary music, including the Darmstadt Summer Courses (twice), Impuls Academy Graz, and masterclasses with composers such as Beat Furrer and Georg Friedrich Haas. In 2018, he was selected for the VIII International Young Composers Academy in Tchaikovsky.

Khrust is a laureate of international and national competitions, including Open Space (First Prize), the Jurgenson International Competition, and the Radio Orpheus Competition (First Prize). His works have been performed widely in Europe and internationally, including at the Venice Biennale and leading venues in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam, Basel, Zürich, and Darmstadt, by ensembles such as Studio for New Music Moscow, MCME, Ensemble Aleph, MusikFabrik, Reconsil, and Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain.

He has been composer-in-residence at GRAME (Lyon) and CIRM (Nice). His artistic practice spans instrumental and electroacoustic music, music theatre, sound installations, and multimedia projects, including the internationally presented music-theatre production Boxing Pushkin.

Khrust is active as an electronics performer, improviser, and computer-music designer, and is a co-founder of the Octopus improvisation ensemble. He is the author of scholarly publications on extended instrumental techniques, contemporary notation, and music phenomenology. His PhD dissertation, Extended Techniques of Playing Instruments: An Experience of Classification, was supervised by Prof. Tatiana Tsaregradskaya.

He is a member of the Russian Composers’ Union, the Union of Moscow Composers, and the Sound Plasticity Group.