Alexander Tcherepnin

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Alexander Nikolayevich Tcherepnin (born January 21, 1899; died September 29, 1977) was a Russian-born composer and pianist. His father, Nikolay Tcherepnin, (pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov) and his son, Ivan Tcherepnin, (a member of the Harvard University faculty) were also composers. His son, Serge, was involved in the roots of electronic music and instruments. His mother (née Benois) was a niece of Alexandre Benois.

His early works were fairly original and some of his pieces have enduring popularity. His output includes three operas, four symphonies, six piano concertos, works for ballet, choral music, and a large amount of solo piano music. His first symphony is remarkable for including the first symphonic movement ever written completely for unpitched percussion. Another symphony, left incomplete at his death, would have been for percussion alone. Tcherepnin invented his own harmonic language by combining minor and major hexachords, pentatonic scales, old Russian modal tunes and Georgian harmonies.

[edit] Biography

He was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. After the 1917 Russian Revolution, he emigrated and then lived in France and the United States. He visited the Far East between 1934 and 1937. He promoted composers in Japan (Akira Ifukube and others) and China, even founding his own publishing house in Tokyo for the purpose. He married a Chinese pianist, Lee Hsien Ming, while in China.

During World War II, he lived in France. In 1948, he went to the United States, and in 1958, he acquired United States citizenship. He and his wife taught at DePaul University in Chicago, where the Chicago Symphony Orchestra premiered his second symphony with Rafael Kubelík conducting. His students there included Phillip Ramey, Gloria Coates, and John Downey. He died in Paris in 1977.

The Singapore Symphony Orchestra has recorded his first-ever complete symphony cycle.