Nicolas Slonimsky

Full biography Nicolas Slonimsky

Nicolas Slonimsky (1894-1995) was a Russian-born American musicologist, conductor, and composer. He is best known for his reference works, including the "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns" and the "Lexicon of Musical Invective," in which he compiled humorous and critical reviews of classical music.

Born in Saint Petersburg, Slonimsky studied music at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory before leaving the Soviet Union in 1923. He settled in the United States and became a naturalized citizen in 1931. Throughout his life, Slonimsky conducted orchestras and composed his own music, which includes symphonies, operas, concertos, and piano works for four hands and six hands.

In addition to his musical pursuits, Slonimsky was also a prolific writer. He contributed articles to many music journals and was a regular columnist for the Boston Traveler, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Los Angeles Times. He also wrote several books, including "Music Since 1900" and "Perfect Pitch," and edited several editions of "Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians."

Slonimsky's contributions to music were recognized with several awards and honors, including the National Institute of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Music in 1988. Today, his legacy lives on through his writings and musical compositions, as well as through the Nicolas Slonimsky Collection at the Library of Congress, which contains a wide range of materials relating to his life and work.