Alexander Tikhonovich Gretchaninov

Background

He was born on October 25, 1864 in Moscow, Russia.

Education

Grechaninov attended the Moscow Conservatory of Music where he studied under Safonov, but later moved to the St. Petersburg Conservatory in order to study composition under Rimsky-Korsakov.

Career

His first opera, Dobrinya Nikititch, was first produced in Moscow in 1903.

His second opera, Sister Beatrice, after Maeterlinck, was produced in 1912. It was withdrawn because stage representations of the Virgin were offensive to the Russian Orthodox Church.

In 1920 the composer left Russia, toured Europe, and in 1925 settled in Paris. He moved to the United States in 1939, becoming an American citizen in 1946.

He was past 80 when he completed an opera based on Nikolai Gogol's The Marriage.

Grechaninov's compositions include symphonies, chamber works, piano pieces, songs, and many choral and religious works.

Achievements

• Alexander Tikhonovich Gretchaninov was known for his songs and for two pieces, String Quartet in G Major and the first of his five symphonies, both composed in 1894.