Kroshner, Mikhail Yefimovich

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KROSHNER, MIKHAIL YEFIMOVICH

KROSHNER, MIKHAIL YEFIMOVICH (1900–1942), composer. Born in Kiev, Kroshner studied piano from 1918 to 1921 in Kiev (with Blumenfeld), Moscow, and Sverdlovsk. From 1931 he studied composition with Zolotaryev, with whom he moved to Minsk in 1933, graduating from the Minsk conservatory in 1937. Kroshner collected Belorussian folklore and used folk tunes in his compositions. His ballet The Nightingale (1939) was the first Belorussian national ballet and was successfully staged in Minsk, Moscow, and Odessa. Unable to escape from Minsk before the German occupation in 1941, he perished there a year later. Among his major works are the cantata The Drowned Man, Symphonic Dances, a string quartet, songs, and arrangements of Jewish folk songs for voice and piano.

bibliography:

ngg2; A. Livshits, "Pervyi belorusskiy balet Solovey M. Kroshnera," in: Sovetskaya muzyka, 11 (1939), 75–80; D. Zhuravlev: "Kroshner, M.," in: Belorusskaya entsiklopedia literatury i iskusstva (1986).

[Marina Rizarev (2nd ed.)]