biography
| name: |
Koussevitsky, Serge
|
| |
originally Sergei Alexandrovich Koussevitsky
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pronunciation:
[koosevitskee]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1874–1951)
|
| biography:
| Conductor, born in Vishni-Volotchok, Russia. A virtuoso on the double bass, he took up conducting and in 1909 founded his own orchestra and publishing company in Moscow. After the Revolution he emigrated to Paris, where his Concerts Koussevitzky presented important new works by Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Ravel, and others. In 1924 he was named conductor of the Boston Symphony, a post he held for 25 years, a legendary era for the orchestra. He continued his historic advocacy of contemporary composers (though tending to conservative ones), commissioning major works from Stravinsky, Hindemith, and Prokofiev, as well as championing American composers including Copland, Piston, and Barber. In the 1930s he developed the orchestra's Tanglewood summer concerts and the associated school called the Berkshire Music Centre (1940). After his retirement from the orchestra (1949), he guest-conducted in Europe and the Americas. |
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