Chaikovskii, Boris Aleksandrovich

Born Sept. 10, 1925, in Moscow. Soviet composer. Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (1969).

In 1949, Chaikovskii graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where he had studied composition with N. Ia. Miaskovskii; previously he had studied with V. Ia. Shebalin and D. D. Shosta kovich. In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s Chaikovskii emerged as a leading composer of Soviet symphonic and chamber music. His principal works include the Symphony No. 2 (1962; State Prize of the USSR, 1969), Chamber Symphony (1967), and the orchestral work Theme and Eight Variations (1974). Other notable works are a piano quintet; piano, violin, and cello concerti; six quartets; and The Lyric Poetry of Pushkin (1972), a cyclic vocal composition. Chaikovskii has also composed The Signs of the Zodiac (1974), based on Russian poems, and music for motion pictures and radio.