Igor Stravinsky
Portrait by Yousuf Karsh

Composer, conductor; born in Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg, Russia. Son of an admired bass in the Imperial Opera, he studied piano and composition as a boy. Although he studied law at St. Petersburg University, he was far more interested in music; between 1903--06 he studied composition under Rimsky-Korsokov and became a member of that composer's circle.

In 1909 the Russian ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev invited him to compose for his company, the Ballets Russes; in 1910 the company danced Stravinsky's first major work, The Firebird, and for the next 20 years he was closely associated with Diaghilev's company; their premiere of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps ("The Rite of Spring") in 1913 caused a tremendous commotion.

After 1910 Stravinsky essentially settled in Western Europe - first Switzerland, then Paris - and toured as a conductor and pianist in performances of his own music. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, he regarded himself as an exile. In 1926, he rejoined the Russian Orthodox Church and his devout Christianity inspired many of his subsequent works. After three tours in the United States and several American commissions, he moved there in 1939, settled in Los Angeles, and became a naturalized citizen in 1945.

Although Stravinsky continued to be an international neoclassicist in his musical style, he did show some recognition of his American environment, writing his famous Circus Polka (1942) for the elephants of the Barnum and Bailey Circus and his Ebony Concerto (1945) for Woody Herman; his various efforts at movie music ended up being used in other compositions. The climax of his neoclassical style was his opera, The Rake's Progress (1951). The young American conductor, Robert Craft, became Stravinsky's inseparable assistant from 1948 on; Craft not only aided Stravinsky in his various musical projects but helped him assemble several books. Craft also introduced Stravinsky to the serialist school of music and, from the early 1950s, Stravinsky composed in his own adaptation of this style. By this time, he was generally recognized as the leading composer of his era and he toured throughout the world conducting his own and others' works.

In 1962, Stravinsky's 80th birthday was widely celebrated and he made a triumphant visit to Russia. He settled in New York City in 1969. After his death in 1971, he was buried in Venice near Diaghilev's grave.

Nearly 30 years after his death, his works gained new prominence in the world of modern classical music. At the Grammy Awards ceremony in February 2000, a recorded performance of Firebird and Rite of Spring by the San Francisco Symphony won three Grammys, including Best Classical Album and Best Orchestral Recording, while a recording of Rake's Progress, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner, won Best Opera Recording.

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