Notable Alumni of St. Petersburg State Conservatory [Sorted List]

1. Rudolf Tobias

1873-1918 (aged 45)

composer conductor music educator choir director

Rudolf Tobias was the first Estonian professional composer, as well as a professional organist. He studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. His compositions include among others piano works, string quartets and an oratorio, Des Jona Sendung (Jonah's Mission) (1908, revised and premiered 1909, later reconstructed by Vardo Rumessen).

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2. Miroslav Kultyshev

1985-. (aged 41)

pianist

Miroslav Kultyshev is a Russian classical pianist and was awarded second prize at the 2007 International Tchaikovsky Competition (no first prize was awarded).

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3. Miina Härma

1864-1941 (aged 77)

choir director music teacher conductor composer organist

Miina Härma was an Estonian composer, organist, choir director, and music teacher, known for being Estonia's first professional female composer and organist.

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4. Alfrēds Kalniņš

1879-1951 (aged 72)

music educator conductor composer

Alfrēds Bruno Jānis Kalniņš was a Latvian composer, organist, pedagogue, music critic and conductor; the founder of national Latvian opera. Kalniņš is primarily remembered for his national opera Baņuta (1920).

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5. Semyon Chernetsky

1881-1950 (aged 69)

music educator conductor composer major general musicologist

Semyon Aleksandrovich Chernetsky was a Soviet military composer and conductor. He is credited as the founder of modern Russian military bands. He served as the Senior Director of the Central Military Band of the People's Commissariat of National Defense of the USSR from 1924 to 1950.

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6. Yakiv Stepovy

1883-1921 (aged 38)

music director music critic pedagogue composer music educator

Yakiv Stepanovych Stepovy was a Ukrainian composer, music teacher, and music critic.

7. Anna Yesipova

1851-1914 (aged 63)

pianist music educator university teacher

Anna Yesipova was a Russian pianist.

8. Meliton Balanchivadze

1862-1937 (aged 75)

singer composer opera singer

Meliton Balanchivadze was a Georgian opera singer, composer and a member of Georgia's cultural scene, both under the Russian Empire and during the country's independence. Two of his sons, George and Andria, had illustrious careers, the former as a pioneering choreographer in the United States, and the latter as Soviet Georgia's leading classical composer.

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9. Joseph Achron

1886-1943 (aged 57)

music educator composer

Joseph Yulyevich Achron, also seen as Akhron was a Russian composer and violinist, who settled in the United States. His preoccupation with Jewish elements and his desire to develop a "Jewish" harmonic and contrapuntal idiom, underscored and informed much of his work. His friend, the composer Arnold Schoenberg, described Achron in his obituary as "one of the most underrated modern...

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10. Afrasiab Badalbeyli

1907-1976 (aged 69)

librettist music critic musicologist composer conductor

Afrasiyab Badal bey oghlu Badalbeyli was a Soviet Azerbaijani composer, with noble Iranian origins (he was the descendant of Bahman Mirza and Abbas Mirza), conductor and music critic, author of the music and libretto of Giz Galasi (The Maiden Tower), the first Azerbaijani ballet and the first ballet in the Middle East.

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11. Sergei Stadler

1962-. (aged 64)

violinist conductor

Sergei Stadler is a Russian violinist and conductor. He is currently Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Saint Petersburg Symphony Orchestra.

12. Heino Eller

1887-1970 (aged 83)

composer violinist music educator music teacher

Heino Eller was an Estonian composer and pedagogue, known as the founder of contemporary Estonian symphonic music.

13. Mikhail Gnesin

1883-1957 (aged 74)

music educator professor composer

Mikhail Fabianovich Gnessin was a Russian Jewish composer and teacher. Gnessin's works The Maccabeans and The Youth of Abraham earned him the nickname the "Jewish Glinka".

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14. Veronika Dzhioeva

1979-. (aged 47)

opera singer

Veronika Dzhioeva is a South Ossetian soprano.

15. Nadezhda Rimskaya-Korsakova

1848-1919 (aged 71)

composer pianist

Nadezhda Nikolayevna Rimskaya-Korsakova was a Russian pianist and composer as well as the wife of composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. She was also the mother of Russian musicologist Andrey Rimsky-Korsakov.

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16. Alexander Knaifel

1943-2024 (aged 81)

composer musician

Alexander Aronovich Knaifel was a Soviet composer from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, known for his operas The Ghost of Canterville and Alice in Wonderland as well as for his music for cinema.

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17. Yuri Shaporin

1887-1966 (aged 79)

music educator film score composer conductor composer university teacher

Yuri Alexandrovich Shaporin, PAU, was a Soviet composer. Two Stalin Prizes first degree (1941, 1946). Stalin Prize second degree (1952).

18. Leonid Kreutzer

1884-1953 (aged 69)

pianist conductor

Leonid Kreutzer was a Russian-born classical pianist and teacher.

19. Irina Bogacheva

1939-2019 (aged 80)

opera singer music educator

Irina Petrovna Bogacheva was a Russian mezzo-soprano at the Mariinsky Theatre and a professor of voice at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. Trained in Leningrad and at La Scala in Milan, she performed leading roles of the Russian and Italian repertoire at major international opera houses. Dmitri Shostakovich composed his Six Poems by Marina Tsvetayeva for her.

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20. Nikolai Tcherepnin

1873-1945 (aged 72)

conductor pianist composer music educator choreographer

Nikolai Nikolayevich Tcherepnin or Cherepnin was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. He was born in Saint Petersburg and studied under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He conducted for the first Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.

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21. Samuel Maykapar

1867-1938 (aged 71)

pianist music educator composer

Samuel Moiseyevich Maykapar was a Russian romantic composer, pianist, professor of music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and author of a number of piano practice pieces.

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22. Ossip Gabrilowitsch

1878-1936 (aged 58)

pianist conductor composer

Ossip Salomonovich Gabrilowitsch was a Russian-American pianist, conductor and composer.

23. Daniil Shafran

1923-1997 (aged 74)

music educator cellist musician

Daniil Borisovich Shafran was a Soviet Russian cellist.

24. Arthur Lourié

1892-1966 (aged 74)

music critic musicologist composer

Arthur-Vincent Lourié, born Naum Izrailevich Luria, later changed his name to Artur Sergeyevich Luriye (Russian: Артур Серге́евич Лурье) (14 May 1892 – 12 October 1966) was a Russian composer, writer, administrator, and musical agent. Lourié played an important role in the earliest stages of the organization of Soviet music after the 1917 Revolution but later went into exile. His music...

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25. Maximilian Steinberg

1883-1946 (aged 63)

conductor university teacher composer music educator choreographer

Maximilian Osseyevich Steinberg was a Russian composer of classical music.

26. Vasily Safonov

1852-1918 (aged 66)

conductor pianist pedagogue music educator classical pianist

Vasily Ilyich Safonov, also known as Wassily Safonoff, was a Russian pianist, teacher, conductor and composer.

27. Thomas de Hartmann

1885-1956 (aged 71)

visual artist pianist film score composer composer

Thomas Alexandrovich de Hartmann was a Ukrainian-born composer, pianist and professor of composition.

28. Yuri Khanon

1965-. (aged 61)

animal breeder composer pianist writer philosopher

Yuri Khanon is a pen name of Yuri Feliksovich Soloviev-Savoyarov, a Russian composer. Prior to 1993, he wrote under a pen name Yuri Khanin, but later transformed it into Yuri Khanon, spelling it in a pre-1918 Russian style as ХанонЪ. Khanon was born on June 16, 1965, in Leningrad. In 1988, he became a laureate of the European Film Awards...

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29. Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel

1868-1913 (aged 45)

opera singer

Nadezhda Ivanovna Zabela-Vrubel was a Russian opera singer. She was the niece of the Russian sculptor Parmen Zabela. Vocally, she is best described as a coloratura soprano, with a particularly high tessitura.

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30. Gerard Vasilyev

1935-. (aged 91)

singer actor theatrical director

Gerard Vyacheslavovich Vasilyev is a Soviet and Russian singer and actor, People's Artist of the RSFSR, President of the Foundation for the Conservation and Development of the operetta genre, president of competition for young artists of operetta OperettaLand.

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31. Fyodor Stravinsky

1843-1902 (aged 59)

singer actor opera singer

Fyodor Ignatyevich Stravinsky was a Russian bass opera singer and actor. He was the father of Igor Stravinsky and the grandfather of Théodore Strawinsky and Soulima Stravinsky.

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32. Yevgeny Brusilovsky

1905-1981 (aged 76)

music educator composer

Yevgeny Grigoryevich Brusilovsky was a Soviet and Russian composer who settled in Kazakhstan. He wrote the first Kazakh opera, co-wrote the music for the anthem of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, and was a People's Artist of the Kazakh SSR.

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33. Joseph Schillinger

1895-1943 (aged 48)

composer musicologist music theorist music educator

Joseph Moiseyevich Schillinger was a composer, music theorist, and composition teacher who originated the Schillinger System of Musical Composition. He was born in Kharkov, in the Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Kharkiv, Ukraine) and died in New York City. He sometimes used the pseudonym "Frank Lynn".

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34. Emil Młynarski

1870-1935 (aged 65)

composer conductor violinist music educator

Emil Szymon Młynarski was a Polish conductor, violinist, composer, and pedagogue.

35. Viktor Kosenko

1896-1938 (aged 42)

composer pianist

Viktor Stepanovych Kosenko was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, and educator. He was regarded by his contemporaries as a master of lyricism.

36. Yuri Simonov

1941-. (aged 85)

music educator conductor

Yuri Ivanovich Simonov is a Russian conductor. He studied at the Leningrad Conservatory under Nikolai Rabinovich, and was later an assistant conductor to Yevgeny Mravinsky with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra.

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37. Olga Borodina

1963-. (aged 63)

opera singer

Olga Vladimirovna Borodina is a leading mezzo-soprano, known for her roles in Russian operas at her home company, the Mariinsky Theatre, and for her international performing and recording career in a varied repertoire.

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38. Felix Blumenfeld

1863-1931 (aged 68)

conductor pianist classical composer pedagogue professor

Felix Mikhailovich Blumenfeld was a Russian and Soviet composer and conductor of the Imperial Opera St-Petersburg, pianist, and teacher.

39. Andre Kostelanetz

1901-1980 (aged 79)

conductor bandleader composer music arranger radio personality

Andre Kostelanetz was a Russian-American popular orchestral music conductor and arranger who was one of the major exponents of popular orchestra music.

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40. Sergei Slonimsky

1932-2020 (aged 88)

music educator film score composer composer pianist university teacher

Sergei Mikhailovich Slonimsky was a Russian and Soviet composer, pianist and musicologist.

41. Leonid Desyatnikov

1955-. (aged 71)

composer film score composer

Leonid Arkadievich Desyatnikov. He is a member of the St. Petersburg Union of Composers. Desyatnikov is the author of multiple operas, cantatas and compositions. His best known works are The Children of Rosenthal, his score for the ballet Lost Illusions, the opera Poor Liza; Gift, a cantata on poems by Gavriil Derzhavin; Dichterliebe und -leben, a vocal cycle on poems...

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42. Concordia Antarova

1886-1959 (aged 73)

music educator writer opera singer

Concordia Antarova was a Russian contralto who starred in the Bolshoi Theater for more than twenty years. After her singing career ended, she wrote theosophical texts. She was recognized as an Honored Artist of the RSFSR in 1933.

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43. Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov

1859-1935 (aged 76)

composer conductor musicologist music educator

Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov was a Russian and Soviet composer, conductor and teacher. His music ranged from the late-Romantic era into the 20th century era.

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44. Vladimir Sofronitsky

1901-1961 (aged 60)

music educator pianist

Vladimir Vladimirovich Sofronitsky was a Soviet-Russian classical pianist, best known as an interpreter of Alexander Scriabin and Frédéric Chopin. His daughter is the Canadian pianist Viviana Sofronitsky.

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45. Mischa Elman

1891-1967 (aged 76)

violinist musician

Mischa Elman (Russian: Михаил Саулович Эльман; January 20, 1891 – April 5, 1967) was a Russian-American violinist famed for his passionate style, beautiful tone, and impeccable artistry and musicality.

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46. Alexander Tcherepnin

1899-1977 (aged 78)

film score composer composer university teacher pianist musicologist

Alexander Nikolayevich Tcherepnin was a Russian-born composer and pianist.

47. Jāzeps Vītols

1863-1948 (aged 85)

conductor university teacher pianist composer music critic

Jāzeps Vītols was a Latvian composer, pedagogue and music critic. He is considered one of the fathers of Latvian classical music.

48. Viktoriya Tokareva

1937-. (aged 89)

screenwriter writer editing staff

Viktoriya Samuilovna Tokareva is a Soviet and Russian screenwriter and short story writer. Her work has been translated into English and is available in several anthologies as well as in The Talisman and Other Stories - a book of Tokareva's short stories translated by Rosamund Bartlett. She lives in Moscow, where she continues to write.

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49. Oleg Karavaychuk

1927-2016 (aged 89)

composer conductor pianist film score composer

Oleg Nikolayevich Karavaychuk was a Soviet and Russian composer, author of music for many films and theater performances.

50. Vladimir Martynov

1946-. (aged 80)

musicologist music educator composer

Vladimir Ivanovich Martynov is a Russian composer, known for his compositions in the concerto, orchestral music, chamber music, and choral music genres.

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51. Anna Plisetskaya

1971-. (aged 55)

ballerina choreographer actor

Anna Alexandrovna Plisetskaya is a Russian ballerina, actress and producer.

52. Vasily Petrenko

1976-. (aged 50)

conductor

Vasily Eduardovich Petrenko is a Russian-British conductor. He is currently music director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

53. Boris Eifman

1946-. (aged 80)

choreographer ballet master

Boris Yakovlevich Eifman is a Russian choreographer and artistic director. He has done more than fifty ballet productions.

54. Nicolas Slonimsky

1894-1995 (aged 101)

composer lecturer pianist musicologist conductor

Nicolas Slonimsky, born Nikolai Leonidovich Slonimskiy (Russian: Никола́й Леони́дович Слoнимский), was a Russian-American musicologist, conductor, pianist, lexicographer, and composer. Best known for his writing and musical reference work, he wrote the Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns and the Lexicon of Musical Invective, and edited Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians.

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55. Leo Ornstein

1893-2002 (aged 109)

composer pianist music educator pedagogue

Leo Ornstein was an American experimental composer and pianist of the early twentieth century. His performances of works by avant-garde composers and his own innovative and even shocking pieces made him a cause célèbre on both sides of the Atlantic. The bulk of his experimental works were written for piano.

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56. Alexander Gretchaninov

1864-1956 (aged 92)

composer pianist conductor music educator

Alexander Tikhonovich Gretchaninov was a Russian Romantic composer.

57. Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi

1907-1979 (aged 72)

composer pianist film score composer politician

Vasily Pavlovich Solovyov-Sedoy was a Soviet classical composer and songwriter who was born and died in Leningrad.

58. Nathan Milstein

1902-1992 (aged 90)

violinist

Nathan Mironovich Milstein was a Russian-American virtuoso violinist.

59. Efrem Zimbalist

1889-1985 (aged 96)

music educator conductor composer university teacher music arranger

Efrem Zimbalist was a Russian and American concert violinist, composer, conductor and director of the Curtis Institute of Music.

60. Mark Taimanov

1926-2016 (aged 90)

pianist non-fiction writer engineer actor chess player

Mark Evgenievich Taimanov was one of the leading Soviet and Russian chess players, among the world's top 20 players from 1946 to 1971. A prolific chess author, Taimanov was awarded the title of Grandmaster in 1952 and in 1956 won the USSR Chess Championship. He was a World Championship Candidate in 1953 and 1971, and several opening variations are named...

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61. Nikolai Myaskovsky

1881-1950 (aged 69)

music educator pedagogue composer university teacher musicologist

Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky, was a Russian and Soviet composer. He is sometimes referred to as the "Father of the Soviet Symphony". Myaskovsky was awarded the Stalin Prize five times.

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62. Heinrich Neuhaus

1888-1964 (aged 76)

pianist musicologist music educator university teacher

Heinrich Gustav Neuhaus was a Russian and Soviet pianist and teacher. Part of a musical dynasty, he was of German descent. He taught at the Moscow Conservatory from 1922 to 1964. Neuhaus was also awarded the People's Artist of the RSFSR (1956).

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63. Semyon Bychkov

1952-. (aged 74)

music educator conductor

Semyon Mayevich Bychkov is a Soviet-born American conductor. He is the chief conductor and artistic director of the Czech Philharmonic.

64. Nikita Bogoslovsky

1913-2004 (aged 91)

presenter opinion journalist television presenter public figure conductor

Nikita Vladimirovich Bogoslovsky was a Soviet and Russian composer. Author of more than 300 songs, 8 symphonies (1940–1991), 17 operettas and musical comedies, 58 soundtracks, and 52 scores for theater productions. Many of his songs were made for film.

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65. Anton Arensky

1861-1906 (aged 45)

conductor university teacher pianist composer music educator

Anton Stepanovich Arensky was a Russian composer of Romantic classical music, a pianist and a professor of music.

66. Neeme Järvi

1937-. (aged 89)

conductor

Neeme Järvi is an Estonian and American conductor.

67. Tugan Sokhiev

1977-. (aged 49)

conductor music director

Tugan Taymurazovich Sokhiev is a Russian conductor.

68. Elena Obraztsova

1939-2015 (aged 76)

opera director opera singer actor music educator

Elena Vasilyevna Obraztsova was a Soviet and Russian mezzo-soprano. She was awarded the People's Artist of the USSR in 1976 and Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990.

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69. Maria Yudina

1899-1970 (aged 71)

pianist music educator classical pianist

Maria Veniaminovna Yudina was a Soviet pianist.

70. Anatoly Lyadov

1855-1914 (aged 59)

pedagogue university teacher composer classical composer conductor

Anatoly Konstantinovich Lyadov was a Russian composer, teacher and conductor.

71. Yuri Temirkanov

1938-2023 (aged 85)

opera director music educator conductor

Yuri Khatuevich Temirkanov was a Soviet and Russian conductor, named a People's Artist of the USSR.

72. Andrey Petrov

1930-2006 (aged 76)

choreographer film score composer composer

Andrei Pavlovich Petrov was a Soviet and Russian composer. He was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1980. Andrey Petrov is known for his music for numerous classic Soviet films such as Walking the Streets of Moscow, Beware of the Car, and Office Romance.

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73. Yevgeny Mravinsky

1903-1988 (aged 85)

pianist music educator conductor

Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Mravinsky was a Soviet and Russian conductor, pianist, and music pedagogue; he was a professor at Leningrad State Conservatory.

74. Alexander Alexandrov

1883-1946 (aged 63)

military personnel choir director composer music educator conductor

Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov, was a Soviet and Russian composer and founder of the Alexandrov Ensemble, who wrote the music for the State Anthem of the Soviet Union, which in 2000 became the National Anthem of the Russian Federation (with new lyrics). During his career, he also worked as a professor of the Moscow Conservatory, and became a Doctor of Arts....

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75. Sergey Boyarskiy

1980-. (aged 46)

pianist actor guitarist politician musician

Sergey Boyarsky is a Russian political figure, deputy of the 7th and 8th State Dumas convocations.

76. Grigory Sokolov

1950-. (aged 76)

music educator pianist

Grigory Lipmanovich Sokolov is a Russian born Russian and Spanish pianist. He is among the most esteemed of living pianists, with his repertoire spanning composers from the Baroque period such as Bach, Couperin or Rameau up to Schoenberg and Arapov. He regularly tours Europe (excluding the UK).

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77. Sergei Roldugin

1951-. (aged 75)

cellist conductor businessperson music educator

Sergei Pavlovich Roldugin is a Russian cellist and businessman based in St Petersburg. He is a close friend of Vladimir Putin. He has been implicated in several money laundering and offshore wealth schemes for Russian elites. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European Union sanctioned Roldugin.

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78. Dimitri Tiomkin

1894-1979 (aged 85)

film producer film score composer conductor composer pianist

Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin was a Russian and American film composer and conductor. Classically trained in Saint Petersburg before the Bolshevik Revolution, he moved to Berlin and then New York City after the Russian Revolution. In 1929, after the stock market crash, he moved to Hollywood, where he became best known for his scores for Western films, including Duel in the...

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79. Irina Ponarovskaya

1953-. (aged 73)

presenter television presenter actor singer

Irina Vitalyevna Ponarovskaya is a Soviet and Russian singer and film actress, popular in the 1980s and the 1990s.

80. Valery Gergiev

1953-. (aged 73)

conductor music director

Valery Abisalovich Gergiev is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is currently general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre and of the Bolshoi Theatre and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg. He was formerly chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and of the Munich Philharmonic.

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81. George Balanchine

1904-1983 (aged 79)

choreographer screenwriter scenographer dancer ballet dancer

George Balanchine was a Georgian-American ballet choreographer, recognized as one of the most influential choreographers of the 20th century. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its artistic director for more than 35 years. His choreography is characterized by plotless ballets with minimal costume and décor, performed to classical and neoclassical...

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82. Clara Rockmore

1911-1998 (aged 87)

violinist composer musician

Clara Reisenberg Rockmore was a Litvak classical violin prodigy and a virtuoso performer of the theremin, an electronic musical instrument. She was the sister of pianist Nadia Reisenberg.

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83. Jascha Heifetz

1901-1987 (aged 86)

violinist music educator teacher

Jascha Heifetz was a Russian-American violinist, widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Vilnius, he was soon recognized as a child prodigy and was trained in the Russian violin school in St. Petersburg. Accompanying his parents to escape the violence of the Russian Revolution, he moved to the United States as a teenager, where...

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84. Teodor Currentzis

1972-. (aged 54)

conductor musician composer actor poet

Teodor Currentzis is a Greek and Russian conductor, musician and actor. He is artistic director of the ensembles MusicAeterna and Utopia and was chief conductor of the SWR Symphonieorchester from 2018 to 2024.

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85. Georgy Sviridov

1915-1998 (aged 83)

pianist film score composer composer

Georgy Vasilyevich Sviridov was a Soviet and Russian composer. He is most widely known for his choral music, strongly influenced by the traditional chant of the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as his orchestral works which often celebrate elements of Russian culture.

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86. Leon Theremin

1896-1993 (aged 97)

cellist inventor physicist musician

Lev Sergeyevich Termen, better known as Leon Theremin, was a Russian inventor, most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments and the first to be mass-produced. He also worked on early television research. His secret listening device, "The Thing", hung for seven years in plain view in the United States ambassador's Moscow office...

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87. Anna Netrebko

1971-. (aged 55)

actor recording artist opera singer

Anna Yuryevna Netrebko is a Russian operatic soprano who has performed at the Salzburg Festival, Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera and La Scala.

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88. Eduard Khil

1934-2012 (aged 78)

music educator singer

Eduard Anatolyevich Khil, often anglicized as Edward Hill, was a Russian baritone singer.

89. Sergei Diaghilev

1872-1929 (aged 57)

editing staff choreographer entrepreneur impresario art critic

Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, also known as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, from which many famous dancers and choreographers would arise.

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90. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

1840-1893 (aged 53)

music critic university teacher diarist music educator choreographer

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire, including the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, the opera Eugene...

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91. Sergei Rachmaninoff

1873-1943 (aged 70)

conductor pianist virtuoso musicologist composer

Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom notable for its song-like melodicism,...

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92. Dmitri Shostakovich

1906-1975 (aged 69)

composer university teacher pianist director classical composer

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer.

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93. Sergei Prokofiev

1891-1953 (aged 62)

pianist conductor composer

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who later worked in the Soviet Union. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous music genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His works include such widely heard pieces as the March from The Love for Three Oranges, the suite Lieutenant Kijé,...

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94. Mikhail Kuzmin

1872-1936 (aged 64)

novelist composer linguist poet translator

Mikhail Vladimirovich Kuzmin is a Russian political figure and a deputy of the 8th State Duma. He was the mayor of Stavropol from 1991 to 2001.

95. Gavriil Popov

1904-1972 (aged 68)

classical composer

Gavriil Nikolayevich Popov was a Soviet composer.

96. Gavriil Musicescu

1847-1903 (aged 56)

music educator conductor composer

Gavriil Musicescu was a Romanian composer, conductor and musicologist, father of the pianist and musical pedagogue Florica Musicescu.

97. Sergei Bortkiewicz

1877-1952 (aged 75)

classical composer pianist

Sergei Eduardovich Bortkiewicz was a Romantic composer and pianist. He moved to Vienna in 1922 and became a naturalized Austrian citizen in 1926.

98. Tõnu Kaljuste

1953-. (aged 73)

choir director music teacher conductor

Tõnu Kaljuste is an Estonian conductor.

99. Igor Luchenok

1938-2018 (aged 80)

music educator film score composer composer

Igor Mikhailovich Luchenok was a Belarusian composer, People's Artist of the Byelorussian SSR (and People's Artist of the USSR), and chairman of the Belarusian Union of Composers.

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100. Mariss Jansons

1943-2019 (aged 76)

music educator conductor

Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons was a Latvian conductor, best known for his interpretations of Mahler, Strauss, and Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich. During his lifetime he was often cited as among the world's leading conductors; in a 2015 Bachtrack poll, he was ranked by music critics as the world's third best living conductor. Jansons was long associated...

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