Alexander Borisovich Goldenweiser

About museum

Alexander Borisovich Goldenweiser – a Russian and Soviet pianist, composer, teacher, publicist, music critic, and public figure. Doctor of Art Studies, People's Artist of the USSR, laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first degree. 

Alexander Goldenweiser's musical abilities manifested in early childhood. At the age of eight he began studying music professionally under V.P. Prokunin – a collector of folk songs and a pupil of P.I. Tchaikovsky. In 1889 Goldenweiser entered the Moscow Conservatory in the class of A.I. Ziloti. He graduated from the conservatory in 1895 (piano class of P.A. Pabst) and in 1897 (composition class of M.M. Ippolitov-Ivanov). 

From 1895 he was involved in teaching: he worked at the Nikolaev Orphanage, the Elisavetinsky and Ekaterininsky women's institutes, as well as at the Music and Drama School of the Moscow Philharmonic Society. From 1906 to 1961 Goldenweiser taught at the Moscow Conservatory in the piano class; from 1936 to 1959 he headed the department. He also held leadership positions at the conservatory: he was assistant director, deputy director (prorector), and in 1922–1924 and 1939–1942 he served as director (rector). In 1931 he organized a “Special Children's Group” at the Moscow Conservatory. From 1936 to 1941 he was the artistic director of the Central Music School at the conservatory. During the Great Patriotic War (World War II) he was evacuated to Nalchik, Tbilisi, and Tashkent. In 1943 he returned to Moscow. He died on November 26, 1961 in the settlement of Nikolina Gora.