SLONIMSKY, NICOLAS

SLONIMSKY, NICOLAS (1894–1995), musicologist, lexicographer, composer, and conductor. Born in St. Petersburg, Slonimsky was the son of Leonid *Slonimski and grandson of Ḥayyim Zelig *Slonimski. He studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory (piano with Vengerova, his aunt, and composition with Kalafaty and Shteinberg). He went to the United States in 1923 and worked as opera coach at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York (1923–25), and as secretary to Serge *Koussevitzky (1925–27). He founded and conducted the Chamber Orchestra of Boston from 1927 to 1934; he also conducted the Harvard University Orchestra (1927–30). Slonimsky was a lecturer at Colorado College (1940, 1947–49), Peabody Conservatory (1956–57), and ucla (1964–67). He became a champion of modern American music, which he presented on lecture and performance tours. He edited the 4^th to 7^th editions of Thompson's International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians (1946, 1949, 1952, 1956) and the 5^th edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (1958, re-issued with supplements in 1964 and in 1971). His writings include Music since 1900 (1937), Music of Latin America (1945), Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns (1947), and A Lexicon of Musical Invective (1953) as well as a number of scholarly articles. He composed a number of works, some of them frankly tongue-in-cheek, such as Moebius Strip Tease (1965).

bibliography:

ng²; R. Kostelanetz, "Conversation with Nicolas Slonimsky about his Composing," in: Music Quarterly, 74 (1990), 458–72; R. Stevenson: "Nicolas Slonimsky: Centenarian Lexicographer and Musicologist," in: Inter-American Music Review, 14 (1994), 149–55.

[Marina Rizarev (2^nd ed.)]