Alexei Vasilievich Haieff, (August 25, 1914 – March 1, 1994)[1] was an American composer of orchestral and choral works. He is known for following Stravinsky's neoclassicism, observing an austere economy of means, and achieving modernistic effects by a display of rhythmic agitation, often with jazzy undertones.
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Born in Blagoveshchensk, Siberia, in the Russian Far East, Haieff received his primary education at Harbin, Manchuria.[2] In 1931 he went to the U.S., where he studied with Rubin Goldmark and Frederick Jacobi at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City (1934–38). In 1938-39 he also studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He became a U.S. citizen and held U.S. citizenship for 55 years, until his death.
He held a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1946 and again in 1949, and was a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome (1947–48). He won the Rome Prize in 1949. He was a professor at the University of Buffalo (1962–68), and composer-in-residence at the University of Utah (1968–70). His Piano Concerto won the New York Music Critics’ Circle Award and his 2nd Symphony the American International Music Fund Award.[3]
Haieff's notable students include Paul Ramsier.
He was married to Sheila Jeanne Agatha van Meurs in 1988.[4] He died in Rome, Italy, at the age of 80.
Ballets
Orchestral
Chamber music
Piano Compositions
Vocal/Choral