Nikolaev, Leonid

Born Aug. 1 (13), 1878, in Kiev; died Oct. 11, 1942, in Tashkent. Soviet pianist, teacher, composer, and musical and public figure. People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1938). Doctor of art studies (1941). Member of the CPSU from 1939.

In 1900, Nikolaev graduated from V. I. Safonov’s piano class at the Moscow Conservatory. He also studied in S. I. Taneev’s and M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov’s composition classes, from which he graduated in 1902. Nikolaev taught piano and music theory at the Higher Music and Drama School of the Moscow Philharmonic Society from 1904 to 1906 and at the Moscow People’s Conservatory from 1906 to 1909. From 1909 until his death, he worked at the St. Petersburg (Leningrad) Conservatory, where he became a professor in 1912. He also gave piano recitals.

Nikolaev founded one of the leading Russian and Soviet piano schools. Among his most outstanding pupils were S. I. Savshinskii, V. V. Sofronitskii, M. V. Iudina, D. D. Shostakovich, and P. A. Serebriakov. He also taught composition; V. M. Deshevov and A. A. Krein were among his students. Nikolaev composed instrumental and vocal works. He was the author of a book of memoirs about the Moscow Conservatory, and he also wrote a number of articles on piano technique. He received the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.