Tchaikovsky
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Mikhail Mikhailovich Ippolitov-Ivanov

Михаил Михайлович Ипполитов-Иванов

Russian composer, teacher and conductor, born Mikhail Mikhailovich IVANOV (Иванов), born at Gatchina (near Saint Petersburg) on 7/19 November 1859.

The son of a mechanic to the royal household, Ippolitov-Ivanov studied music at home, and became a choirboy at St. Isaac's Cathedral in the Russian capital. From 1875 to 1882 he studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, under Nikolai Rimskii-Korsakov. In 1882 he became director of the Russian Musical Society and music school in Tiflis (now Tblissi), Georgia. It was here in 1886 that he met Tchaikovsky for the first time, and he remained in contact with both Ippolitov-Ivanov and his wife Varvara until his death in 1893. Tchaikovsky also did a great deal to promote Ippolitov-Ivanov's music in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

In 1893 Ippolitov-Ivanov was appointed professor at the Moscow Conservatory, where he taught harmony, orchestration and composition; he also served as director of the institution from 1905 to 1924, and of the fledgling Tblissi Conservatory from 1924 to 1925. His other roles included spells as director of the Russian Choral Society (1895-1901), the Mamontov Opera (1898-1906), and the Bol'shoi Theatre (from 1925). He was also highly active as a conductor, and a contributor to musical journals.

Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov was also chairman of the Society of Friends of the Tchaikovsky House-Museum at Klin from 1920 to 1930. He died in Moscow on 28 January 1935, aged 74.