Goldenveizer, Aleksandr Borisovich

Born Feb. 26 (Mar. 10). 1875, in Kishinev; died Nov. 26. 1961, in Moscow. Soviet pianist, teacher, composer, writer on music, and public figure. People’s Artist of the USSR (1946) and doctor of the Arts (1940).

Gol’denveizer graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where he completed P. A. Pabst’s piano class (earlier he had studied with A. I. Ziloti) in 1895 and M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov’s composition class in 1897. A professor at the Moscow Conservatory from 1906 to 1961, Gol’denveizer was its director from 1922 to 1924 and from 1939 to 1942. He founded one of the most important Soviet schools of piano playing. His students included D. A. Bashkirov. L. N. Berman, D. D. Blagoi, G. P. Ginzburg, D. B. Kabalevskii, A. L. Kaplan, P. V. Tamarkina, T. P. Nikolaeva, and S. E. Feinberg. He is the composer of three operas, the cantata The Light of October, chamber instrumental ensembles, piano pieces, and romances. He wrote numerous critiques and the memoirs Near Tolstoy (vols. 1–2, 1922–23; 2nd ed., 1959, in one volume). Gol’denveizer was awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1947), two Orders of Lenin, two other orders, and various medals.