Khessin, Alexander (Borisovich)
Khessin, Alexander (Borisovich)
Khessin, Alexander (Borisovich), Russian conductor and pedagogue; b. St. Petersburg, Oct. 19, 1869; d. Moscow, April 3, 1955. After taking a law degree (1894), he studied composition with Solo vie ν at the St. Petersburg Cons. (1895–99) and conducting with Nikisch in Leipzig and Motti in Karslruhe. He conducted the sym. concerts of the Russian Musical Soc. in St. Petersburg and the Moscow Phil. Soc. (1901–05), and also served as director of the latter’s music school (1904–05). After protesting the dismissal of Rimsky-Korsakov from the St. Petersburg Cons, in 1905, he also was dismissed from his posts. He toured Western Europe and the Russian hinterlands (1907–10) before serving as director of the Count Sheremetiev Music School in St. Petersburg (1910–15). In 1921 he settled in Moscow as a teacher, becoming director of the opera studio in 1935 and a prof, in 1939 at the Cons. After teaching at the Sverdlovsk Cons. (1941–13), he was director of the Soviet Opera Co. of the All-Russian Theater Soc. (1943–53). He introduced many operas to the public in concert form before they were staged. His memoirs were publ. in Moscow in 1959.
—Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire