Serge Koussevitzky
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Image:Serge Koussevitzky, between 1920 and 1950.jpg
Sergei Aleksandrovich Koussevitzky (Russian: Сергей Александрович Кусевицкий) (July 26, 1874 – June 4, 1951), or Serge, was a Russian-born conductor best known for his long tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949.
Life and career
Koussevitzky came from a humble background, growing up in Vyshny Volochyok, Tver Oblast, about 250 km northwest of Moscow. His parents were professional musicians who taught him Violin, Cello and Piano. At 14 he left home to study music in Moscow.
Initially known as a virtuoso double bass player (he wrote a concerto for the instrument in 1902), his conducting debut came in Berlin, 1908. The following year he founded his own orchestra. He left the Soviet Union in 1920 and stayed in Paris before moving to the United States in 1924 (he became a U.S. citizen in 1941).
He was appointed conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1924. Over the next twenty-five years, he continued building the ensemble's reputation as a leading American orchestra, and developing its summer concert and educational programs at Tanglewood. With the Boston Symphony he made numerous recordings, many of which are available on compact disc. Most of his recordings have been well-regarded by critics. His students and proteges included Leonard Bernstein and Sarah Caldwell.
Koussevitzky was a great champion of modern music, commissioning a number of works from prominent composers, including Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms (commissioned to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston Symphony). In 1942 he founded the Koussevitzky Foundation to commission and perform new works — among the results were Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes, Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3, and Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie.
Koussevitzky's widow gave his Amati double bass to Gary Karr, a well-known contemporary double bass soloist.
Among Koussevitzky's recording premieres was that of Sibelius's Seventh Symphony.
See also
External links
- Koussevitzky Foundations website
- Listing of works commissioned by the Foundations
- Biography
- Biography
- Site dedicated to Koussevitzky
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