M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov, portrait by E. A. Kolchin, 1910s
Mikhail Mikhaylovich Ippolitov-Ivanov was a composer, teacher, conductor and public figure, active in the sphere of music. He was awarded the title of Peoples Artist of the Republic in 1922.
In 1882 he graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied composition and orchestration with Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, harmony and counterpoint with Yuly Ivanovich Johansen and conducting with Karl Yulyevich Davydov. In 1882-1893 he lived in Tiflis (presently, Tbilisi), where he headed the regional branch of the Imperial Russian Musical Society (IRMS) and the musical college affiliated with it. In 1895–1901 he was the conductor of the Russian Choral Society, in 1899-1906 – of the Private Russian Opera of Sergey Ivanovich Mamontov and the Russian Opera of Sergey Ivanovich Zimin and from 1925 – of the Bolshoi Theater.
In 1893 he became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory, where he taught a variety of different disciplines. His students included Sergey Nikiforovich Vasilenko, Reinhold Moritsevich Glière, Nikolay Semyonovich Golovanov, Aleksandr Borisovich Goldenweiser and Leonid Vladimirovich Nikolayev. Ippolitov-Ivanov became the first elected director (1906 –1918) and the first rector of the Moscow Conservatory (1919–1922).
His compositions include operas: “Ruth,” 1887; “Azra,” 1890; “Asya,” 1900, “Treason,” 1910; “Ole from Norland,” 1916; “The Marriage” (Scenes 2-4 from Modest Musorgsky’s unfinished opera) and others; cantatas; a symphony, 1907; suites, including “Iveria,” 1895; “Musical Paintings from Uzbekistan,” 1930s; symphonic poem “Mtsyri,” 1924, and other orchestral works; music for chamber ensembles; works for piano; vocal and choral compositions.
