Russian Composers

Count Michał Wielhorski

Polish composer, cellist, poet. Born in St Petersburg in the family of Count Jerzy Wielhorski (1753–1807), Polish envoy to the Russian court (1788). Lived in various houses on Mikhailovskaya Square (...

Arthur Lourié

Composer, musical critic. Born Naum Lourié in the village of Propoisk (now Slavgorod) in the family of Jewish engineer Israel Lourié and Anna Levitina (1891). Studied under Alexander Glazunov at the ...

Dmitry Shostakovich

Composer. Born in St Petersburg (1906) to engineer Dmitry Shostakovich (1875–1922) and pianist Sofia Kokoulina (1878–1955). Wrote the Leningrad Symphony during the Siege of Leningrad (1943). Died of ...

Andrei Petrov

Composer. Born in Leningrad to surgeon Pavel Petrov and artist Olga Vaulina (1930). Wrote the music to the ballet The Creation of the World (1968). Winner of the State Prize (1967, 1976), People’s Ar...

Mikhail Glinka

Composer, founder of the Russian national school of opera. Born in the village of Novospasskoe in Smolensk Province in the family of retired army captain Ivan Glinka (1804). Director of the Court Cap...

Mily Balakirev

Composer, pianist, conductor. Born in Nizhny Novgorod (1836) in the family of a poor clerk called Alexei Balakirev (1809–1869). Debuted as a pianist in St Petersburg (1855). Founding member of the Ru...

Dmytro Bortniansky

Composer of spiritual music. Born in the Ukrainian Cossack town of Hlukhiv in the family of Lemko-Rusyn refugee Stefan Škurat (1751). Graduated from the Hlukhiv School of Music and Choral Singing (17...

Modest Mussorgsky

Composer. Born in Karevo in Pskov Province in the family of landowner Pyotr Mussorgsky (1839). Wrote the operas Boris Godunov (1872) and Khovanshchina (1880). Member of the Russian Five. Performed in...

Nikolai Rubinstein

Pianist, conductor. Born in Moscow in the family of Jewish factory-owner Grigory Rubinstein (1835). Founded the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society (1860) and the Moscow Conservatoire (1866)...

Alexei Lvov

Composer, violinist, musical theorist. Born in Reval in the family of writer and poet Fyodor Lvov (1799). Composed the music to the Imperial Russian national anthem God Save the Tsar with words by Va...

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