Siohan, Robert (-Lucien)

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Siohan, Robert (-Lucien)

Siohan, Robert (-Lucien), French conductor, composer, and writer on music; b. Paris, Feb. 27, 1894; d. there, July 16, 1985. He studied at the Paris Cons. (1909–22). In 1929 he founded the Concerts Siohan, which he conducted until 1936; was chorus master at the Paris Opéra (1931–46), and from 1948 to 1962 an instructor in solfège and sight-reading at the Paris Cons.; subsequently served as inspector-general of music in the Ministry of Culture. He received his doctorate at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1954 with the diss. Théories nouvelles de l’homme (publ, as Horizons sonores, Paris, 1956). Among his compositions are the opera Le saut dans les étoiles (1926–27), Cantique au frère soleil for Soloists, Chorus, and Orch. (1926), Violin Concerto (1928), Piano Concerto (1939), String Quartet (1922), and Gravitations for Viola and Piano (1952). He publ. Stravinsky (Paris, 1959; Eng. tr., London, 1966) and Histoire du public musical (Lausanne, 1967), as well as numerous articles in French and German publs.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire