Siloti, Alexander

Born Sept. 27 (Oct. 9), 1863, in Kharkov; died Dec. 8, 1945, in New York. Russian pianist, musical figure, conductor, and teacher.

Siloti studied with N. S. Zverev and N. G. Rubinstein (piano) and P. I. Tchaikovsky (theory) at the Moscow Conservatory and later with F. Lizst in Weimar. Between 1888 and 1891 he taught piano at the Moscow Conservatory; S. V. Rachmaninoff and A. B. GoFdenveizer were among his pupils. He founded a regular series of chamber and symphonic concerts in St. Petersburg known as the Siloti Concerts (1903) and the educational Popular Concerts (1912) and People’s Free Concerts (1915); with A. M. Gorky he founded the Russian Musical Fund (1916) to assist needy musicians.

Siloti lived in the USA from 1922 and taught piano at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. He performed the piano works of J. S. Bach and Debussy. A highly sophisticated performer with a great breadth of musical interests, Siloti conducted and performed in ensembles with such eminent violinists and cellists as L. S. Auer, A. V. Verzhbilovich, E. Ysaye, and P. Casals. He also arranged and edited works for the piano.