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Article

Akimenko [Yakymenko], Fedir Stepanovych  

Virko Baley

(b Pisky, near Khar′kiv, 8/Sept 20, 1876; d Paris, Jan 8, 1945). Ukrainian composer and pianist. Aged ten he was sent, along with his brother Yakiv (later known as the composer Stepovy), to sing in the choir of the Imperial Chapel in St Petersburg. It was during his time there (1886–95) that he began to compose under the influence of his teachers Balakirev and Lyapunov. He finished studies with Rimsky-Korsakov and Lyadov at the St Petersburg Conservatory in 1901, the year in which the latter conducted the first performance of the Lyric Poem, op.20. Akimenko then became the director of a music school in Tbilisi (1901–03). He performed widely as a pianist, particularly in France and Switzerland, and lived for a while in Paris (1903–06) before returning to Khar′kiv. In 1914 he was invited to teach composition and theory at the St Petersburg Conservatory, a post he held until ...

Article

Albrecht, Eugen Maria  

Geoffrey Norris and Nigel Yandell

[Yevgeny Karlovich]

Member of Albrecht family

(b St Petersburg, July 4/16, 1842; d St Petersburg, Jan 28/Feb 9, 1894). German, active in Russia, instrumentalist, teacher, and administrator, son of Karl Albrecht. From 1857 to 1860 he studied at the Leipziger Konservatorium, where his principal teachers were Ferdinand David (violin), Moritz Hauptmann (composition), and Karl Brendel (history of music). He also studied briefly with Ignaz Moscheles, who was professor of piano at the Conservatory. In 1860 he was appointed violinist in the orchestra of the Italian Opera at St Petersburg and from 1862 to 1887 he played second violin in the quartet of the St Petersburg branch of the Russian Musical Society. He was well known as a music teacher, and taught several members of the imperial family; his elementary guides to violin and cello playing were published in 1871 and 1872 respectively. He helped to institute the St Petersburg Society for Quartet Music (...

Article

Alday, François  

Barry S. Brook

revised by Richard Viano

[l'aîné]

Member of Alday family

(b Mahón, Menorca, c1761; d ?Lyons, after 1835). French violinist, organist, teacher and music director. He was the older son of Alday père. The Alday name, presumably referring to François, first appeared in the Parisian press in 1771 after a performance at the Concert Spirituel: ‘M. Aldaye fils, âgé d'environ dix ans, a joué sur la mandoline avec autant de rapidité que de précision’ (Mercure de France, April 1771, ii, 182). He does not appear to have been an outstanding soloist; the name ‘Aldée’ is listed last in the second violin section of the Concert Spirituel in 1786, and probably refers to him rather than to his brother Paul. In 1797 he was a music teacher and ‘premier violon du spectacle’ in Lyons. In 1810 he founded the Cercle Harmonique, a concert society comprising the best musicians in that city. As its director, he played an important role in the musical life of Lyons; he encouraged the performance of contemporary music, including the first performance in that city of Beethoven’s ...

Article

Alessandrescu, Alfred  

Viorel Cosma

revised by Ruxandra Arzoiu

(b Bucharest, 2/Aug 14, 1893; d Bucharest, Feb 18, 1959). Romanian composer, pianist, conductor, teacher, music critic, and director of music programmes. A leading figure of the first half of the 20th century, he laid the foundation of the Romanian school in music, concert life, and musical journalism. He studied with A. Castaldi, D. Dinicu, D.G. Kiriac, and E. Saegiu at the Bucharest Conservatory (1903–11), completing his education with two periods of study in Paris (1913–14, 1923–4), where he studied with d’Indy at the Schola Cantorum and with Paul Vidal at the Conservatoire. A remarkable accompanist, he worked with Enescu, Thibaud, Mainardi, Moodie, and others during the period 1919–45. As a conductor he always achieved a soberly balanced performance; he conducted more than 1500 performances at the Romanian Opera in Bucharest (1921–59), where he specialized in the French repertory (Bizet, Massenet, and Gounod). In his capacities as conductor of the Romanian Philharmonic Society, and as conductor and artistic manager of the Romanian RSO, he did much to encourage Romanian composers. He was also active as a music critic for Romanian and French reviews. Much of his compositional work was done during his youth, including ...

Article

Amengual(-Astaburuaga), René  

Juan Orrego-Salas

revised by Luis Merino

(b Santiago, Sept 2, 1911; d Santiago, Aug 2, 1954). Chilean composer and pianist. He studied with Allende for composition and Renard for the piano at the Santiago National Conservatory (1923–35), where he then held appointments as coach at the opera department (1935), assistant professor of the piano (1937), professor of analysis (1940), and director (1945). At the same time he taught at the Liceo Manuel de Salas in Santiago. He was secretary-general to the Instituto de Extensión Musical (from 1941), a founder-director of the Escuela Moderna de Música, Santiago (1940), and a member of various arts societies. In 1943 he went to the USA as a guest of the Institute of International Education and in 1953 he was in Europe for the performance of his Wind Sextet at the ISCM Festival. His early compositions show the influences of French music and Chilean folklore; from the late 1940s his work became more Expressionist and abstract....

Article

Belichenko, Sergey  

Leonard Bernardo

(Andrejevich )

(b Novosibirsk, Russian SFSR [now Russia], March 16, 1947). Russian drummer, writer, broadcaster, and educator. He began playing jazz in 1962, and after graduating from the state medical institute in Novosibirsk in 1971 he pursued a dual career as a jazz musician and an obstetrician. In 1975 he established Tvorcheskoye Dhazovoye Ob’yedinenie (Creative Jazz Unity), the first association of musicians and jazz promoters east of the Urals. He performed with Vladimir Tolkachev in the Musical Improvising Trio (1975–9), with Igor Dmitriev in various groups (including, from 1977, Zolotoye Gody Dhaza (Golden Jazz Years), with Vytautas Labutis in the quartet SibLitMash (Siberian-Lithuanian Jazz Machine, 1980s), and with Vagif Sadykhov in another quartet (1998), while also working as a freelance with Vladimir Chekasin, Anatoly Vapirov, Igor Butman, Joe Locke, Paul Bollenback, and former members of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, among others. In 1990 he began to broadcast on radio, and in ...

Article

Bendix, Max  

Kara Gardner

(b Detroit, March 28, 1866; d Chicago, Dec 6, 1945). American violinist, conductor, musical director, teacher, and composer. Bendix was born to Jewish parents who had emigrated from Germany. His father William was a music teacher. Bendix began formal study at the Cincinnati College of Music where, at the age of twelve, he performed with the college orchestra, directed by Theodore Thomas. This began a long association between the two men, leading to Bendix’s appointment as first violinist and concertmaster of the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in 1886. In August 1893 Thomas resigned his position as music director of the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition following a series of unsuccessful concerts. Bendix took Thomas’s place as conductor of the Exposition orchestra. This created tension between the two men, and Bendix left the Thomas orchestra in 1896. He went on to serve as conductor at the Manhattan Opera House and to conduct orchestras for world fairs in St. Louis (...

Article

Bennewitz [Benevic], Antonín  

Gracian Černušák

revised by John Warrack

(b Přívaty, nr Litomyšl, March 1833, d Doksy, nr Litoměřice, May 29, 1926). Czech violinist, teacher and administrator. He studied with Mořic Mildner at the Prague Conservatory (1846–52) and held posts in Prague, Salzburg (1861–3) and Stuttgart (1863–6). He was professor at the Prague Conservatory (1865–82) and then director (1882–1901). An energetic and progressive musician, he contributed much to the artistic eminence of the school, improved its orchestra, cultivated chamber music and taught a number of pupils who made the Prague violin school world-famous; these included Otakar Ševčík, Jan Ondříček, Josef Suk, Oskar Nedbal and Karel Halíř. Under his direction appointments to the staff included Dvořák (composition), Ševčík (violin) and Hanuš Wihan (cello). He also organized some pioneering public concerts of Czech and foreign music, and himself played in chamber concerts, including in a trio with Smetana and Hegenbarth....

Article

Brivio, Giuseppe Ferdinando  

Sven Hansell

(b Milan, ? end of the 17th century; d Milan, ? c1758). Italian composer, possibly an impresario, singing teacher and violinist. 18th-century sources (e.g. BurneyH; GerberL; GerberNL and La BordeE) blur the distinction between two or more musicians active in Milan by failing to give first names. Only the revised edition of Mancini (1777) supplies Giuseppe Ferdinando as the composer’s first names and describes him as a prominent Milanese singing teacher without identifying him with the violinist, composer and impresario also active in Milan. In fact a family of Brivios could be involved, including an older singing teacher, Carlo Francesco Brivio, who appeared in Milanese operas of 1696, Teodolinda and L’Etna festante, the librettos for which call him ‘musico di S.E. il Castellano’ (the castle commander’s musician). Suggested as Giuseppe Ferdinando’s father (Martinotti in DBI), this Carlo Francesco may have been the bass employed in the ducal court chapel until ...

Article

Bullock, Sir Ernest  

Malcolm Turner

(b Wigan, Sept 15, 1890; d Aylesbury, May 24, 1979). English organist and educationist. He was a pupil of and assistant organist to Bairstow at Leeds (1907–12), and took the BMus (1908) and DMus (1914) degrees at Durham University, becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists in 1909. His first important post, suborganist at Manchester Cathedral (1912–15), was interrupted by war service, after which he was organist at St Michael’s College, Tenbury (1919), and organist and choirmaster of Exeter Cathedral (1919–27). On Nicholson’s retirement from Westminster Abbey in 1928, Bullock succeeded him as organist and Master of the Choristers. In this post he was obliged to provide the music for several royal functions; for the coronation of King George VI (1937) he wrote the fanfares and conducted the choir and orchestra, in acknowledgment of which he was created CVO. He also provided all but one of the fanfares for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (...

Article

Dohnányi, Ernő  

Bálint Vázsonyi

[Ernst von]

(b Pozsony [now Bratislava], July 27, 1877; d New York, Feb 9, 1960). Hungarian pianist, composer, conductor, teacher and administrator. Next to Liszt he ranks as the most versatile Hungarian musician, whose influence reached generations in all spheres of musical life. He is considered the first architect of Hungary’s musical culture in the 20th century.

He received his early training in Pozsony. His father, an outstanding amateur cellist, and Károly Forstner, cathedral organist, gave him lessons in piano playing and theory. Despite the absence of professional training, he showed an extraordinary appetite for music and made rapid progress. Having finished at the Gymnasium, he decided to obtain his formal education in music at the Budapest Academy. He was the first Hungarian of significant talent to do so and his example, as well as his personal intervention, induced Bartók (his friend from early schooldays) to follow the same course. Dohnányi studied the piano with Thomán and composition with Koessler, and received his artist’s diploma in ...

Article

Glackemeyer, Frederick  

Helmut Kallmann

[Johann Friedrich Conrad; Frédéric]

(b Hanover, Aug 10, 1759; d Quebec, 12/Jan 13, 1836). Canadian musician of German birth. The son of a military band musician, he is reported to have been a violin prodigy. In 1777 he enlisted in one of the Brunswick regiments destined for Canada. Discharged in 1783, he settled in Quebec, where he made a living as instrumentalist, teacher, tuner, repairman, and importer of instruments and sheet music. He was probably the first full-time musician in Canada who left a mark both immediate and lasting. His activities, probably as a director and conductor, enhanced the holding of subscription concerts in Quebec in the 1790s, featuring orchestral and chamber music by J.C. Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Pleyel and others. Many of the printed parts assumed to have been supplied by Glackemeyer are still preserved. Prince Edward (later Duke of Kent), in Quebec 1791–4, is said to have appointed him a regimental bandmaster....

Article

Guidé, Guillaume  

Stefaan Verdegem

(b Liège, April 7, 1859; d Bruxelles, July 19, 1917). Belgian oboist, teacher, and director of the Brussels Monnaie opera house. He studied oboe at the Liège Conservatoire with Alphonse Romedenne, receiving the premier prix in 1875, and a gold medal in 1877. Guidé started his career as principal oboe of the Association Artistique in Angers, France, where he became acquainted with a number of young French composers including Massenet, Chabrier, Saint-Saëns, and Vincent d’Indy, who dedicated his Fantaisie pour Orchestre et Hautbois principal op.31 to him. In 1884 he became the oboe teacher at the Brussels Conservatoire, and principal oboe of the Monnaie opera house. Much admired by conductors and composers such as Felix Mottl, Hans Richter, and Richard Strauss—who called him ‘the poet of the oboe’—Guidé’s reputation was renowned throughout Europe. Considered the godfather of the Belgian oboe school, the most famous of his students was Henri De Busscher, who influenced Leon Goossens and the English oboe school, and, later, as oboist of the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra, the American oboe school as well. Also gifted as a conductor and concert organizer, Guidé became co-director, together with Maurice Kufferath, of the Monnaie opera house in ...

Article

Jennings, Anthony  

J.M. Thomson

(b Wellington, Feb 6, 1945; d Sydney, July 30, 1995). New Zealand harpsichordist, organist, choral and orchestral director. A brilliant student, he took the BMus at Victoria University, Wellington, in 1968. Following postgraduate study in Brussels (1972), he was awarded the Kingdom of Belgium Pro Arte Gold Medal. In 1973 he took a postgraduate diploma at the GSM, London. During these years he was choirmaster at the Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Brussels, and assistant organist at St Alban’s Cathedral, England. These laid the foundations for his appointment as director of music at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Auckland (1974–85). Under his directorship the cathedral choir flourished and made several recordings. He held a senior lectureship at the University of Auckland from 1974 to 1991 and moved to the faculty of music at Newcastle University, Australia, in 1992. At the time of his death he had been appointed director of music at St James’s Church, Sydney....

Article

Kàan, Jindřich z Albestů  

John Tyrrell

(b Tarnopol, Galicia [now Ukraine], May 29, 1852; d Roudná, Tábor district, Bohemia, March 7, 1926). Czech teacher, administrator, pianist and composer of Galician origin. He was brought up in Klatovy, Bohemia, and in Prague, where he studied the piano and composition at the Proksch Institute; he also studied with Blodek, with Ludevít Procházka and at the Prague Organ School (1873–4). After a brief career as a piano virtuoso (1874–6), he was engaged as music teacher to the Fürstenbergs at their seat in Lány in 1876. He returned to Prague in 1884 and later that year accompanied Dvořák on his first visit to England. In 1889 he became a piano teacher at the Prague Conservatory and was, from 1907 until 1918, director. Although unpopular for his authoritarian approach, his good relations with Vienna enabled him to expand the conservatory; for instance, in 1909 he instituted master classes in composition under Vítězslav Novák. Through his piano transcriptions as well as his many editions he helped to popularize Smetana and other Czech composers. His own compositions, apart from piano music, include songs, two operas, two melodramas and two ballets, ...

Article

Keïta, Mamady  

Vera H. Flaig

(b Balandugu, Guinea, West Africa, 1950). Drummer, director, and teacher of Guinean birth. Mamady Keïta began his official apprenticeship with the village djembéfola at the age of eight. By his late teens, he was lead drummer of Ballet D’Joliba. By 22 he became the company’s first drummer to act as artistic director. Upon his retirement from the ballet in 1986, Keïta played briefly for the national ballet in Côte D’Ivoire before settling in Belgium where he founded an international djembé school called Tam Tam Mandingue.

Keïta came to live in the United States in 2004. At his first official workshop as an American resident, Keïta announced: “I spent fifteen years cleaning up the djembé drumming in Europe. Now it is time to do the same in America.” Despite the growing popularity of the djembé, Keïta was surprised by the lack of understanding about its history and music within American drum circles. Keïta, together with six other ...

Article

McCurdy, Alexander  

Vernon Gotwals

(b Eureka, CA, Aug 18, 1905; d Philadelphia, PA, June 1, 1983). American organist. A pupil of Farnam (1924–7), he made his début at Town Hall, New York, in 1926 and graduated from the Curtis Institute in 1934. His career was closely tied to three institutions; from 1927 to 1971 he was organist and choirmaster at Second (later combined with First) Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia; from 1935 to 1972 he was head of the organ department at the Curtis Institute; and from 1940 to 1965 he held the same post at Westminster Choir College, Princeton. His performances and teaching influenced many young recitalists and church musicians. His wife, Flora Greenwood, a harpist whom he married in 1932, often joined him in recitals. To a splendid innate musical ability he added the attention to rhythm, accuracy, and colorful registration that had been the special marks of Farnam’s playing. He published articles in ...

Article

Moseholm, Erik  

Erik Wiedemann

revised by Barry Kernfeld

(b Fredericia, Denmark, May 13, 1930; d Oct 12, 2012). Danish double bass player, educator, and music administrator. In the early 1950s he performed and recorded with the baritone saxophonist Max Brüel and the trumpeter Jørgen Ryg and was then a member of the Radiodanseorkesteret (1954–5), Ib Glindemann’s big band (1957), and Finn Savery’s trio (1957–8, 1960). From 1959 he worked in duos and led trios, one of which performed at the festivals in Antibes–Juan-les-Pins and Comblain-la-Tour in 1960; he also led the band Radiojazzgruppen from its inception in 1961 until 1966, when he began working in programming for Danmarks Radio (see Radiojazzgruppen). Moseholm was the leading double bass player in Denmark in the 1950s, and his playing may be heard to advantage on the album Trio Suite (Artist 505), recorded in 1970 with the drummer Jørn Elniff and the pianist Arne Forchhammer. From ...

Article

Parran, J(ohn) D(avis)  

Gary W. Kennedy

(b St. Louis, Dec 16, 1947). Clarinetist and educator. As a child he sang in his church choir. His father was a saxophonist, and at around the age of 11 Parran took up the tenor instrument; later he studied saxophone and clarinet at Washington University and Webster College. In the late 1960s he was a founding member of the Black Artists Group and worked in the Human Arts Ensemble. In 1971, after gaining a masters degree in music, he moved to New York, where he joined the big bands of Frank Foster and the arranger James Jabbo Ware and worked extensively as a freelance studio musician; during the same period he received some tuition from George Coleman. Back in St. Louis he recorded two albums with the Human Arts Ensemble (1972–3). Following studies in Africa, Parran settled again in St. Louis (1974) and joined the faculty of Southern Illinois University (located across the river from St. Louis, in Edwardsville, Illinois); he sang in and directed the university’s gospel choir, collaborated with local poets and comedians, formed a trio with the electronic music composer Thomas Hamilton and the classical percussionist Rich O’Donnell, and founded, with the trumpeter Floyd LeFlore, the group Third Circuit ’n’ Spirit, which merged bop, funk, electronic music, and free jazz. In the late 1970s he recorded as a leader (...

Article

Pauer, Max von  

James Methuen-Campbell

(b London, Oct 31, 1866; d Jugenheim, nr Darmstadt, May 12, 1945). German pianist, teacher and music administrator , son of Ernst Pauer . He studied with his father until 1881, and then went to Karlsruhe, where for four years he was a composition pupil of Vincenz Lachner at the conservatory. Pauer made a successful début in London at the age of 19 and then for two years devoted himself to concert work, but without making the impact he had hoped for. From 1887 he was a teacher at the Cologne Conservatory and in 1897 moved to Stuttgart, where he took over Dionys Pruckner's class. He became director of the Stuttgart Conservatory in 1908 and in 1924 succeeded Stephan Krehl as head of the Leipzig Conservatory, which under his leadership was reorganized as a Hochschule für Musik. Pauer remained director for ten years, after which he retired from administration. Especially effective in large-scale works of the piano literature, he developed into a notable Beethoven and Brahms player, and introduced numerous works by contemporary composers such as Reger and Rachmaninoff. He can be heard as pianist in a recording of Schubert's ‘Trout’ Quintet dating from the late 1920s. Admired as a flexible and inventive teacher, Pauer numbered among his pupils Julian von Karolyi, the teacher Walter Georgii and the accompanist Hubert Giesen. He composed some piano pieces, edited a large quantity of music, brought out a new edition of the Lebert-Stark Klavierschule (Stuttgart, ...