Classical Music & High Culture
Composers, conductors, ballet dancers and opera singers from the Russian classical tradition.
Russian classical culture — the composers, the conductors, and above all the ballet — reshaped world art. From the Ballets Russes that stunned Paris to the virtuosos who filled Western concert halls after emigrating, this tradition remains one of the civilization’s most visible global exports. This category documents its figures.
Aaron Copland
Composer of Appalachian Spring; son of Jewish emigrants from Lithuania under the Russian Empire
Alexander Glazunov
St. Petersburg's last Romantic, exiled in Paris
Alexander Godunov
Bolshoi principal dancer born on Sakhalin; remained in the United States in 1979, danced with American Ballet Theatre and acted in Witness and Die Hard
Daniil Trifonov
Pianist born in Nizhny Novgorod, winner of the 2011 Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein competitions
Dimitri Tiomkin
Film composer born in Kremenchug; four Academy Awards; produced and arranged the Soviet film Tchaikovsky (1969)
Efrem Zimbalist
Rostov violin virtuoso who became director of the Curtis Institute and shaped American classical music
Evgeny Kissin
Moscow-born pianist who gave his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 1990, aged 18
George Balanchine
Choreographer, trained at the Imperial Ballet School; co-founder of New York City Ballet
George Gershwin
Brooklyn-born son of Odessa, soundtrack of America
Gidon Kremer
Riga-born violin virtuoso who defected from the USSR and became a champion of new music
Gregor Piatigorsky
Cellist born in Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipro); principal cellist of the Bolshoi at fifteen, later of the Berlin Philharmonic, then a soloist and teacher in the United States
Grigory Sokolov
Leningrad-born pianist who won the Tchaikovsky Competition gold medal in 1966 at 16; releases only live recordings
Igor Levit
Nizhny Novgorod-born pianist who became Germany's most politically outspoken classical star
Igor Stravinsky
Born near St. Petersburg, composed The Rite of Spring and changed music forever
Irving Berlin
The immigrant who wrote America's anthem
Jascha Heifetz
Violinist from Vilna, pupil of Leopold Auer in St Petersburg
Kirill Petrenko
Omsk-born conductor who became Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic — the world's greatest orchestra
Leon Bakst
Painter and stage designer born in Grodno; designer for the Ballets Russes
Leonard Bernstein
America's maestro, born of the Pale's diaspora
Leopold Auer
Hungarian-born violin teacher who trained Heifetz, Milstein and Zimbalist — the greatest pedagogue in history
Lera Auerbach
Chelyabinsk-born composer and pianist who became one of the most performed living composers in the world
Martha Argerich
Buenos Aires-born pianist; granddaughter of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire to the Hirsch colonies of Entre Ríos
Maxim Vengerov
Novosibirsk violin prodigy who became one of the greatest violinists of his generation
Maya Plisetskaya
Ballerina of the Bolshoi from 1943 to 1990, born in Moscow; Carmen in the Carmen Suite created for her in 1967
Michel Fokine
Choreographer born in St Petersburg; created The Dying Swan for Anna Pavlova and The Firebird and Petrushka for the Ballets Russes
Mischa Maisky
Riga-born cellist who studied with Rostropovich and became one of the most celebrated soloists alive
Mstislav Rostropovich
Cellist and conductor born in Baku; Moscow Conservatory pupil of Prokofiev and Shostakovich
Nathan Milstein
Violinist born in Odessa; pupil of Stolyarsky and Auer, he left the USSR in 1925 with Vladimir Horowitz
Nicolai Gedda
Son of a Russian Don Cossack — became the most versatile operatic tenor of the 20th century
Nikolai Medtner
Moscow-born composer and pianist of German parentage — Rachmaninoff called him the greatest composer of our time
Rudolf Nureyev
The Soviet defector who conquered the world's stages
Semyon Bychkov
Born in Leningrad — chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic and one of the world's great maestros
Serge Koussevitzky
Conductor and double-bass virtuoso born in Vyshny Volochyok; music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1924-1949
Serge Lifar
Born in Kyiv — the most important ballet director in 20th-century France, built the Paris Opera Ballet
Sergei Prokofiev
Composer born in the Russian Empire; lived abroad 1918-1936, then in the USSR
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Born near Novgorod — the composer whose Second Piano Concerto is the most romantic music ever written
Tatiana Leskova
Born in Paris to Russian émigré parents — became the mother of Brazilian classical ballet
Teodor Currentzis
Athens-born conductor trained in St. Petersburg who became one of classical music's most controversial and brilliant maestros
Tugan Sokhiev
Born in Vladikavkaz — chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Born in Gorky — the most recorded classical pianist in history, who defected and became an Icelandic citizen
Vladimir Horowitz
Born in Berdychiv, Ukraine — the greatest pianist of the 20th century, who fled Russia with Nathan Milstein in 1925
Vladimir Jurowski
Moscow-born conductor who leads the Bavarian State Opera and London Philharmonic — the heir to the German conducting tradition
Vladimir Spivakov
Born in Ufa to a family of musicians — founded the Moscow Virtuosi and became Russia's most beloved conductor
Yehudi Menuhin
Born in New York to parents from Gomel and Yalta, Russian Empire; violinist and conductor
Zvika Pick
George Alexander Albrecht
Germany's youngest Generalmusikdirektor, three decades in Hannover
Marc Albrecht
Chief conductor of the Dutch National Opera, fifth generation of the Knoop line
Marius Petipa
The Frenchman who created Russian classical ballet
Bartolomeo Rastrelli
Paris-born architect who gave Saint Petersburg its face
John Field
The Irishman who invented the nocturne, in Russia
Etienne Maurice Falconet
Sculpted the Bronze Horseman, Russia's defining monument
Nadezhda von Meck
Tchaikovsky's patron for thirteen years, by correspondence only
Charles Cameron
Scottish architect of the imperial summer palaces
Auguste de Montferrand
Forty years building one cathedral in Saint Petersburg
Jacobo Ficher
Composer and violinist born in Odessa in 1896, a founder of Argentina's Grupo Renovación and author of nearly 140 works
Jacobo Kostakowsky
Violinist and composer born in Odessa in 1893 who settled in Mexico in 1925; father of the painter Olga Costa
Mischa Elman
Violinist born in Talnoye in 1891, pupil of Leopold Auer, famous for 'the Elman tone'; settled in the United States