Leonids Ernestovich Vigners

Born Oct. 28 (Nov. 10), 1906, in Moscow. Soviet conductor and composer. People’s Artist of the Latvian SSR (1955).

Vigners graduated from the Latvian Conservatory in 1930 from the conducting class of E. A. Kupers and G. Snefogts and from the composition class of J. Vitols. That same year he made his debut in a symphonic concert. In 1936 he became a conductor and from 1944 to 1949 was principal conductor of the Theater of Opera and Ballet of the Latvian SSR. He staged the operas Baniuta by Kalnins (1945), The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky (1946), Fires of Revenge by E. Kapp (1947), and Kashchei the Immortal by Rimsky-Korsakov (1949), among others. In 1949, Vigners became principal conductor of the Latvian SSR’s symphony orchestra of radio and television. He is the organizer and conductor of choral groups for the republic’s holidays of song. He has been teaching at the Latvian Conservatory since 1947 (as a professor since 1961). He received the State Prize of the Latvian SSR in 1957 and has been awarded the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Badge of Honor.