Alexander Tcherepnine

Alexander Tcherepnin was introduced to the piano at a very young age by his mother, then he studied music with his father and piano with Leocadia Kashperova (1872-1940), a student of Anton Rubinstein, harmony with Nikolaï Sokolov (1859-1922) at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. After his Baccalaureate in 1917, he entered the University of Saint Petersburg to study music, then continued his studies in Tbilisi in Georgia, where his family took refuge. He began performing as a pianist and wrote music reviews. The family moved to Paris in 1921, where he became known as a pianist and composer.

Although he had already composed important works, he took counterpoint lessons from Paul Vidal (1863-1921) and piano lessons from Isidore Philipp (1863-1958). In 1923, he composed a ballet for Anna Pavlova, Frescoes of Ajanta, which premiered in London the same year. In 1925, he wrote his first opera, 01-01, based on The Days of Our Lives by Leonid Andreïev, a drama inspired by student life. The same year, his Concerto da camera for violin was awarded the Schott Prize, which marked the beginning of a rich career as a composer. In 1926, he toured the United States. The following year, the creation of his first symphony caused a scandal in Paris. In the 1930s, he made numerous trips: to the Balkans, Egypt, Palestine, and from 1934 to 1937 to the Far East. In 1938, he met the pianist Lee Hsien Ming in Shanghai, with whom he married. They settle in Paris.

In 1945-1946, in collaboration with Arthur Honegger and Tibor Harsányi, he composed the ballet Chou Rostaveli, based on an argument by Lifar. In 1948, Alexandre Tcherepine taught composition, analysis and history of music at De-Paul University in Chicago. The following year, he moved there with his family. He received American citizenship in 1958. He then moved to New York in 1964, and intensified his international career as a conductor and pianist. With his wife, he teaches at DePaul University in Chicago, where the Chicago Symphony Orchestra plays the first performance of its second symphony under the direction of Rafael Kubelík. Among his students, we note Gloria Coates, John Downey and Robert Muczynski. In 1967, he was invited to the Soviet Union, where he played in Moscow, Leningrad and Tbilisi.

His stay in China significantly influenced his style. It also uses a 9-tone personal scale consisting of three semitone/tone/semitone cells. His first works were very original and some are still popular. Among his creations are three operas, four symphonies, six piano concertos, thirteen ballets, choral music (a mass and other liturgical writings), melodies with piano accompaniment, chamber music, in particular for cello and piano, as well as a large collection of writings for solo piano. He died in his apartment at 2 rue Furstemberg in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. A plaque in his memory was placed on his building. His wife died in 1991.