Rybnov, Aleksandr Vasilevich

Rybnov, Aleksandr Vasil’evich 

Born Aug. 19 (Sept. 1), 1906, in Moscow. Soviet choral conductor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1971). Member of the CPSU since 1944.

Rybnov graduated from the choral department of the Moscow Conservatory in 1927 and from the music theory department in 1930. In 1930 he became choirmaster, and in 1958, chief choirmaster of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR. He has taken part in the Bolshoi’s presentations of Mussorgsky’s Boris ‘Godunov and Khovanshchina, Borodin’s Prince Igor, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh, and The Maid of Pskov, Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Glinka’s Ruslan and Liudmila, Verdi’s Aida, Prokofiev’s War and Peace and Semen Kotko, Shaporin’s The Decembrists, and Molchanov’s The Dawns Here Are Quiet. From 1954 to 1967 he was a docent at the Gnesin Institute of Music and Pedagogy. From 1934 to 1950 he directed the amateur choir of the I. A. Likhachev Moscow Automobile Plant.

Rybnov has been awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1950) for his work with the chorus in the production of Tchaikovsky’s opera Mazepa. He has also been awarded two orders and various medals.