Nicolas Slonimsky
Nicolas Slonimsky ( Russian Николай Леонидович Слонимский , Nikolai Leonidovich Slonimsky ; born April 15, jul. / 27. April 1894 greg. In St. Petersburg ; † 25. December 1995 in San Francisco ) was an American composer, conductor, musicologist and music critic . He came from a Russian-Jewish family who had converted to the Russian Orthodox denomination.
Life
Slonimsky's first teacher was his aunt, the pianist Isabelle Vengerova . From 1921 to 1923 he lived in Paris , where he met the conductor and double bass player Sergei Kusewizki .
In 1923 Slonimsky came as a piano accompanist to the newly founded opera department of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York , where he also studied composition and conducting. Two years later he joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Boston as an assistant to Sergei Kussewizki .
In 1927, Slonimsky founded the Boston Chamber Orchestra, which was dedicated to contemporary music. There he conducted the premieres of Edgar Varès ' Ionization and Charles Ives ' Three Places in New England .
In 1958 Slonimsky took over the editing of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians and edited it until 1992.
On December 11, 1981, Slonimsky played the piano part in Zappa's composition A Pound for a Brown at a performance by Frank Zappa at the Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica .
In 1991 he was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters .
Bibliography (selection)
- as an author
- Perfect pitch. A life story . University Press, Oxford 1988, ISBN 0-19-315155-3 (autobiography).
- Music Since 1900 . New edition Schirmer, New York 1994, ISBN 0-02-872418-6 .
- Music of Latin America . Crowell Press, New York 1972, ISBN 0-306-711885 (reprinted from the New York 1945 edition).
- Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns . Amsco Publ., New York 1997, ISBN 0-8256-1449-X (reprint of the New York 1947 edition).
- Lexicon of Musical Invective. Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven's Time . 2nd ed. University Press, Seattle 1978, ISBN 0-295-78579-9 .
- as editor
- Theodore Baker (abbreviation): Baker's biographical dictionary of musicians . Schirmer, New York 1958-1992.
Web links
- Nicolas Slonimsky in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Nicolas Slonimsky In Memoriam ( Memento of April 18, 2000 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ^ Honorary Members: Nicolas Slonimsky. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 3, 2019 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Slonimsky, Nicolas |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Слонимский, Николай Леонидович (Russian); Slonimski, Nikolai Leonidowitsch |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American composer and musicologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 27, 1894 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | St. Petersburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 25, 1995 |
| Place of death | San Francisco |