Tcherepnin, Nicolai

Nikolai Tscherepnin – Le pavillon d’Armide, Opus 29 (1903)

(b. St. Petersburg, 15 May [old style 3 May] 1873 — d. Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, 26 June 1945)

Preface
Nikolai Nikolayevich Tcherepnin was a Russian-born composer, conductor, and music teacher. His father was a successful physician in St. Petersburg, and his mother died when he was an infant. His father was quite strict, and his stepmother was not particularly nurturing, but the young musician grew up being exposed to the artistic elite of St. Petersburg. Their home was the setting for many musical evenings; Tcherepnin had the opportunity to hear Mussorgsky perform there.

Tcherepnin studied music throughout his childhood and began composing at a young age, but in order to please his father, he acquired a degree in law in 1895 from the University of St. Petersburg. He then matriculated to the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied composition with Rimsky-Korsakov and piano with K.K. Fan-Arkh. While still a student there, he married Marie Benois. He graduated from the Conservatory in 1898.

Upon graduating, Tcherepnin began teaching chorus and music theory at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Institute. At the same time, he began a long affiliation with the Mariinsky Theater, initially as a choral conductor and later as a leading conductor of opera and ballet. Tcherepnin became involved in several significant arts movements in St. Petersburg including the Belyayev circle, Kruzhok sovremennoy muzïki (the Contemporary Music Circle), and Mir iskusstva (World of Art). These groups exposed the young musician to important trends in the arts and provided many opportunities for significant, enduring professional relationships. …

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