Kirill Kondrashin

Born Feb. 21 (Mar. 6), 1914, in Moscow. Soviet conductor; People’s Artist of the USSR (1972). Member of the CPSU since 1941. A member of a family of musicians.

Kondrashin graduated in 1936 from the Moscow Conservatory in B. E. Khaikin’s course in conducting. He became conductor of the V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theater in 1934, of the Malyi Opera House (Leningrad) in 1937, and of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR in 1943. He has been conducting symphony orchestras since 1956; in 1960 he was appointed chief conductor and artistic director of the symphony orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, and he has toured many coun-tries with this orchestra. Kondrashin is a talented interpreter of classical and contemporary music and a supporter of Soviet composers (he directed the debuts of Shostakovich’s Fourth and Thirteenth symphonies and the symphonic poem The Execution of Stephen Raziri). He was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1948 and 1949 and the State Prize of the RSFSR in 1969. Kondrashin also received the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and medals.