Moscow Conservatory (redirected from Moscow Conservatoire)

Moscow Conservatory 

(full name P. I. Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory), one of the oldest and most important higher musical educational institutions; the all-Union scientific methodological center for musical education.

The Moscow Conservatory was founded in 1866 by the Russian Musical Society on the initiative of N. G. Rubinstein. It became world famous owing to the traditions of musical education established by P. I. Tchaikovsky, S. I. Taneev, and A. S. Arenskii (composition and theory); N. G. Rubinstein and V. I. Safonov (piano); F. Laub and I. V. Grzhimali (violin); V. F. Fittsengagen (cello); and A. D. Aleksandrova-Kochetova (voice).

Students at the Moscow Conservatory have included S. I. Taneev, S. V. Rachmaninoff, A. N. Scriabin, N. K. Metner, A. V. Nezhdanova, A. I. Ziloti. Z. P. Paliashvili, R. M. Glière, N. S. Golovanov, N. A. Obukhova, V. V. Barsova, S. Ia. Lemeshev, V. Ia. Shebalin, A. I. Khachaturian, T. N. Khrennikov, D. B. Kabalevskii, L. N. Oborin, la. V. Flier, S. T. Rikhter, L. B. Kogan, and M. L. Rostropovich. Most of these artists became instructors at the conservatory.

The development of the Soviet school of musical education is also associated with the work of such well-known instructors, composers, and musicians as N. Ia. Miaskovskii, S. S. Prokofiev, Iu. A. Shaporin, A. N. Aleksandrov, and D. D. Shostakovich (composition); K. N. Igumnov, A. B. Gol’denveizer, G. G. Neigauz, S. E. Feinberg, V. V. Sofronitskii, and E. G. Gilel’s (piano); L. M. Tseitlin, A. I. Iampol’skii, K. G. Mostras, M. B. Poliakin, and D. F. Oistrakh (violin); A. A. Brandukov, S. M. Kozolupov, and S. N. Knushevitskii (cello); S. V. Rozanov (clarinet); M. I. Tabakov (trumpet); V. N. Tsybin (flute); V. M. Blazhevich (trombone); N. G. Raiskii, K. N. Dorliak, N. I. Speranskii and M. O. Reizen (voice); M. V. Ivanov-Boretskii, I. V. Sposobin, V. E. Ferman, S. S. Srebkov, R. I. Gruber, S. S. Bogatyrev, T. N. Livanova, and Iu. V. Keldysh (music theory and history); and P. G. Chesnokov, N. M. Danilin, A. V. Gauk, and A. V. Sveshnikov (choral and symphonic conducting). Sveshnikov has been the rector of the conservatory since 1948.

The Moscow Conservatory has (1973) departments of theory and composition (including the sections of musicology and composition), vocal music (sections of choral conducting and singing), piano, and orchestra (sections of stringed instruments, wind instruments, and operatic and symphonic conducting). There also is a department for the continuing education of instructors at higher musical educational institutions. The conservatory has a graduate division, a teaching assistantship program, 26 sub-departments, an opera studio (founded in 1934), a music school with a regular seven-year secondary academic program, a central music school with a ten-year secondary academic program, and a room for the study of folk music (founded in 1937 under the direction of K. V. Kvitka; with more than 20, 000 pieces of music). There is a music library with 13, 000 records and about 6, 000 km of tape recordings and a regular library with about 700, 000 holdings.

Between the 1930’s and 1950’s, national music studios (Uzbek, Turkmen, Tadzhik, Kirghiz, Kazakh, Tatar, Bashkir, Buriat-Mongol) operated at the Moscow Conservatory. It was in these studios that the well-known Soviet composers M. A. Ashrafi, A. A. Babadzhanian, N. G. Zhiganov, K. Karaev, V. Mukhatov, and S. F. Tsintsadze studied.

In the 1972–73 academic year the Moscow Conservatory had an enrollment of approximately 1, 000 students and a faculty of about 300 instructors, including 50 professors and doctors of sciences, more than 100 docents and candidates of sciences, 24 People’s Artists of the USSR and RSFSR, and 56 recipients of the Lenin and State prizes. The conservatory is authorized to confer doctoral and candidate’s degrees.

The Moscow Conservatory has trained approximately 7, 000 musicians; of these 433 have been awarded 578 prizes and titles in international and all-Union competitions. Hundreds of musicians from foreign countries have graduated from the conservatory, and 23 of these musicians have won prizes in international competitions. In 1940 the Moscow Conservatory was named after P. I. Tchaikovsky. It was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1946 and 1966.

A. V. SVESHNIKOV