Boris Alexandrovich Tchaikovsky

• Born in Moscow in 1925, the son of a medical doctor and an economic geographer
• Tchaikovsky was initially a pupil at the Gnessin Moscow Music School
• from 1943 studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Vissarion Shebalin, Nikolai Myaskovsky and Dmitri Shostakovich (composition) and Lev Oborin (piano)
• Breakthrough in the 1960s and 1970s
• In 1949, Tchaikovsky took up a position as an editor in the music department of the All-Union Broadcasting Corporation
• worked as a freelance composer from 1952
• wrote around four dozen cinema and television film scores as well as theatre and radio play music
• from 1968 to 1973, at his own request, honorary First Secretary of the Composers' Association of the Russian Federation
• In 1969, Tchaikovsky was honoured with the USSR State Prize for the Symphony No.2
• Mstislav Rostropovich said that he considered Boris Tchaikovsky to be a genius and that he was convinced ‘that at some point people will realise that there are two great composers with the same name.’
• 1985 Appointed People's Artist of the USSR
• 1989 to 1996 Professor of Composition at the Russian Academy of Music
• writes music full of urgency and complex structure, which in its liveliness and richness of contrast is also suitable for scenic genres (theatre, radio plays, etc.)
• was not one of those composers after Shostakovich who were particularly supported by the party because of his critical stance
• Boris Tchaikovsky's music was increasingly recognised posthumously, and a number of recordings have been made since the turn of the millennium
• Death on 7 February 1996 in Moscow

[Please also visit the website of the Boris Tchaikovsky Society at] (http://www.boris-tchaikovsky.com/english.htm)

Boris Tchaikovsky's works published by Boosey & Hawkes / Sikorski:

Piano Quintet (1962)

Sinfonietta for string orchestra (1953)

Chamber Symphony (1971)