Koussevitsky, Sergei (1874-1951)

Russian musician and conductor. He is well known for his work in the USA. He established his own orchestra in Moscow in 1909, introducing works by Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, and Stravinsky. Although named director of the State Symphony after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Koussevitsky left the USSR for the USA, becoming director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1924.

Koussevitsky was trained at a conservatory in Moscow, becoming a recognized virtuoso on the double bass; he later specialized as a soloist on the instrument and toured Europe. He first appeared as a conductor in Berlin, Germany, in 1908. In 1924 he was appointed conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and in 1934 founded the annual Tanglewood summer music festival in western Massachusetts. He commissioned Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms in 1931 and in 1943 Béla Bartók's Concerto for orchestra. Other works he premiered include the Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures (1922), Prokofiev's first violin concerto (1923) and second symphony (1925), and Leonard Bernstein's second symphony (1949). The Koussevitsky Music Foundation, set up as a memorial to his wife, commissioned Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes (1945), among other works.