Emil Cooper

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emil Albertovich Cooper, also known as Emil Kuper (December 13 [OS December 1], 1877, KhersonNovember 16, 1960, New York) was a Russian conductor and violinist, of English ancestry.

He graduated music school in Odessa as violinist and composer. Until 1898 he played recitals as violinist and learned conducting independently. He also studied conducting with Arthur Nikisch. In 1899 together with Leonid Sobinov and Feodor Chaliapin he performed on tour around Russia cities as operatic conductor. He conducted in a variety of locations in Russia, Western Europe and the USA during his career. He was a long-time staff conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

He premiered Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel in 1909. He also conducted Rimsky-Korsakov's Kashchey the Immortal in January 1917 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

Kuper / Cooper conducted the first performance of R.M. Glière's epic Third Symphony, 'Ilya of Murom', on 23 March 1912.

Emil Cooper emigrated to the West in 1924.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Alexander Khessin
Musical Directors, St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
1920–1923
Succeeded by
Valery Berdyaev