Sergei Rachmaninov
Composer
Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov (April 1, 1873 – March 28, 1943) is widely considered to have been one of the greatest pianists of all time. Before emigrating from Russia, he was an important conductor and opera composer. As a youth, he was influenced by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky and other Russian composers, but his personal style eventually flowered into a song-like melodicism that was at once modern, Romantic and colored by the sound of Orthodox chant. He was also a gifted orchestrator.
Born into a musical, aristocratic family, Rachmaninov took to the piano at age four. After his father squandered the family fortune, young Sergei was sent at age ten to live with a prominent piano teacher at the Moscow Conservatory and remained there until 1894. When his Symphony No. 1 was panned, young Rachmaninov fell into a four-year depression. Intensive therapy helped him to recover and write his wildly popular Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1901.
In the midst of the Bolshevik Revolution, Rachmaninov collected his family and slipped across the border into Finland and settled in New York City in 1918. From that point, he made his living as a celebrity pianist and wrote very little music. Later, he moved to Beverly Hills, California, became an American citizen. He died of cancer in 1943.