Murin, Aleksandr

Born Dec. 21, 1916 (Jan. 3, 1917), in Petrograd. Soviet choral conductor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1976). Member of the CPSU since 1948.

Murin sang in the boys’ choir of the Leningrad Academic Choir. In 1940 he graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory, where he had studied choral conducting under V. P. Stepanov. He began his career with Leningrad choral groups in 1937 and was appointed a choirmaster at the Leningrad Malyi Theater of Opera and Ballet in 1947. Murin became a choirmaster at the S. M. Kirov Leningrad Theater of Opera and Ballet in 1952 and was named senior choirmaster in 1961. He has taken part in the production of such operas as Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, Glinka’s Ivan Susanin, Verdi’s Don Carlo, Shaporin’s The Decembrists, Muradeli’s October, Kholminov’s An Optimistic Tragedy, Dzerzhinskii’s The Quiet Don, Khrennikov’s Into the Storm, and Petrov’s Peter the First.

Murin received the State Prize of the USSR in 1976 and the Glinka State Prize of the RSFSR in 1974. Murin has also been awarded two orders and various medals.