Aaron Avshalomov

Aaron Avshalomov (Russian: Ааро́н Авшало́мов;[1] 11 November 1894 – 26 April 1965) was a Russian-born Jewish composer.

Born into a Mountain Jewish family in Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, Russia, Avshalomov was sent for medical studies to Zürich.[2] After the October Revolution in 1917, which made further studies in Europe impossible, his family sent him to the United States. There he married a fellow Russian émigré in San Francisco.[2]

Less than a year later, he chose to move to China,[2] where he entered the world of Shanghai's academia and, together with other Jewish musicians, who had fled the Russian pogroms and revolution, trained a number of young Chinese musicians in classical music, who in turn became leading musicians in contemporary China.[3] Between 1918 and 1947, he worked to create a synthesis of Chinese musical elements and Western techniques of orchestral composition.[4] In 1919, his son, Jacob Avshalomov was born, who became a composer and conductor, too.

In 1947, he moved to the United States, where he already had spent three years in the mid-1920s.[2] He died in New York.

Compositions
  • Kuan Yin (opera named after Guanyin, the bodhisattva of compassion; premiered in Peking in 1925)[2]
  • The Twilight Hour of Yan Kuei Fei (opera, 1933),[2] presumably after the 1923 eponymous book by A. E. Grantham.
  • The Great Wall (opera, 1933–41),[2] based on the legend of Lady Meng Jiang.
  • Piano Concerto in G on Chinese Themes and Rhythms (1935)[5]
  • Flute Concerto
  • Violin Concerto
  • Symphony No. 1
  • Symphony No. 2 (1949, commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky, premiered by the Cincinnati Sym, conducted by Thor Johnson)
  • Symphony No. 3 (1953, "To the Memory of Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky")
  • Dream of Wei Lin (1949)[2]
  • Soul of the Ch'in
  • Hutongs of Peking
  • Four Biblical Tableaux (Queen Esther's Prayer, Rebecca by the Well, Ruth and Naomi, Processional)[4]

Notes
  1. "Newspaper article on A. Avshalumov". Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2010-03-08.
  2. "Aaron Avshalomov". American Composers Alliance. Retrieved 9 August 2011.
  3. Encyclopedia of Diasporas. Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World. Vol. I, Jewish Diaspora in China by Xu Xin, pp.155-158, Ember, Melvin; Ember, Carol R.; Skoggard, Ian (Eds.), Springer 2004 ISBN 0-306-48321-1
  4. "Aaron Avshalomov".
  5. "Playlist for 08/09/2011". Classical KING FM. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011.
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