Lev Moiseevich Tseitlin

Born Mar. 3 (15), 1881, in Tbilisi; died Jan. 9, 1952, in Moscow. Soviet violinist and teacher. Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (1927); doctor of the arts (1941). Member of the CPSU from 1941.

Tseitlin graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1901, where he had studied violin with L. S. Auer. He gave concerts in Russia and abroad and from 1908 to 1917 was a soloist and concertmaster with S. A. Koussevitzky’s symphony orchestra in Moscow. He was a professor at the Institute of Music and Drama in Moscow from 1918 to 1920 and a professor and the head of the violin department at the Moscow Conservatory from 1920 to 1952.

It was on Tseitlin’s initiative that the First Symphony Ensemble (Persimfans), a symphony without a conductor, was formed. An outstanding orchestra, Persimfans played an important role in the musical life of Moscow during the group’s existence from 1922 to 1932. As a teacher, Tseitlin helped establish the Soviet school of violin playing; his students included A. K. Gabrielian, M. L. Zatulovskii, B. S. Fishman, and S. I. Furer. Tseitlin was awarded two orders.