Boris Alexandrovich Tchaikovsky

• Born in Moscow in 1925, the son of a medical doctor and an economic geographer
• Tchaikovsky was initially a pupil at the Gnessin Moscow Music School
• from 1943 studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Vissarion Shebalin, Nikolai Myaskovsky and Dmitri Shostakovich (composition) and Lev Oborin (piano)
• Breakthrough in the 1960s and 1970s
• In 1949, Tchaikovsky took up a position as an editor in the music department of the All-Union Broadcasting Corporation
• worked as a freelance composer from 1952
• wrote around four dozen cinema and television film scores as well as theatre and radio play music
• from 1968 to 1973, at his own request, honorary First Secretary of the Composers' Association of the Russian Federation
• In 1969, Tchaikovsky was honoured with the USSR State Prize for the Symphony No.2
• Mstislav Rostropovich said that he considered Boris Tchaikovsky to be a genius and that he was convinced ‘that at some point people will realise that there are two great composers with the same name.’
• 1985 Appointed People's Artist of the USSR
• 1989 to 1996 Professor of Composition at the Russian Academy of Music
• writes music full of urgency and complex structure, which in its liveliness and richness of contrast is also suitable for scenic genres (theatre, radio plays, etc.)
• was not one of those composers after Shostakovich who were particularly supported by the party because of his critical stance
• Boris Tchaikovsky's music was increasingly recognised posthumously, and a number of recordings have been made since the turn of the millennium
• Death on 7 February 1996 in Moscow

[Please also visit the website of the Boris Tchaikovsky Society at] (http://www.boris-tchaikovsky.com/english.htm)

Boris Tchaikovsky's works published by Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski:

Piano Quintet (1962)

Sinfonietta for string orchestra (1953)

Chamber Symphony (1971)

’The outward pattern of Boris Tchaikovsky's life is simple. Its plot and content are to be found in his works. He grew up, he studied, and what followed is music... ‘ - David Samailov, russian poet and close friend of the composer