Korchmarev, Klimenti (Arkadievich)

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Korchmarev, Klimenti (Arkadievich)

Korchmarev, Klimenti (Arkadievich), Russian composer; b. Verkhnedneprovsk, July 3, 1899; d. Moscow, April 7, 1958. He studied at the Odessa Cons, with Maliszewski and Biber (graduated with the gold medal, 1919), then went to Moscow (1923), where he became one of the first Soviet composers to embrace revolutionary themes. He wrote Leviy marsh (March on the Left; to words by Mayakovsky) for Chorus and Piano (1923), then composed the operas Ivan-Soldat (Ivan the Soldier; 1925-27; Moscow, April 3, 1927) and Desyat dney, kotoriye potryasili mir (10 Days That Shook the World; 1929-31) and the ballet Krepostnaya balerina (The Serf Ballerina; Leningrad, Dec. 11, 1927). His other works in this vein included the choral syms. Oktyabr (October; 1931) and Narodi sovetskoy strani (The Peoples of the Soviet Land; 1935). From 1939 to 1947 he was in Turkmenistan, where he collected native songs. He also composed the first native ballet, Vesyoliy obmanschchik (The Merry Deceiver). In 1950 he wrote a cantata, Svobodniy Kitay (Free China), for which he received a Stalin Prize.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire