Gorchakov (real name, Zweifel), Sergei

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Gorchakov (real name, Zweifel), Sergei

Gorchakov (real name, Zweifel), Sergei, Russian conductor, teacher, arranger, and composer; b. Moscow, Feb. 10, 1905; d. there, July 4, 1976. He studied conducting with Saradzhev at the Moscow Cons., graduating in 1929. From 1939 to 1952 he conducted the orch. of the All-Union Soviet Radio; from 1960 he taught orchestration at the Inst. of Military Band Conducting. He became particularly interested in the problem of orch. arrangements; in 1959 he submitted a diss. on specific problems of transcribing piano music for wind orchestra, for which he received the degree of candidate of arts and sciences. He also publ. a practical manual of orchestration for wind orch. (Moscow, 1962). He made numerous orch. arrangements of piano music; of these, particularly notable was his orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire