Samosud, Samuil (Abramovich)

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Samosud, Samuil (Abramovich)

Samosud, Samuil (Abramovich) , prominent Russian conductor and teacher; b. Tiflis, May 14, 1884; d. Moscow, Nov. 6, 1964. He studied cello at the Tiflis Cons. (graduated, 1906). After playing cello in various orchs., he went to St. Petersburg, where he was a conductor at the Maryinsky Theater (1917–19) and artistic director of the Maly Theater (1918–36). He then settled in Moscow and was artistic director of the Bolshoi Theater (1936–43), the Stanislavsky-Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theater (1943–50), and the Moscow Phil, and the Ail-Union Radio orch. (1953–57); also taught conducting at the Leningrad Cons. (1929–36), being made a prof. in 1934. In 1937 he was made a People’s Artist of the U.S.S.R. He conducted premieres of a number of works by Soviet composers, including Shostakovich’s opera The Nose (1930) and Prokofiev’s 7th Sym. (1952).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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