Boris Zeidman

Boris Isaakovich Zeidman was born on 10 February 1908 (28 January in the old style) in Saint Petersburg. He studied composition at the Leningrad Conservatory under Maximilian Steinberg, graduating in 1931, and completed his postgraduate course with the same teacher in 1936.

He began by teaching music theory at music colleges in Saratov and Leningrad, and from 1936 to 1939 taught composition and orchestration at the Leningrad Conservatory.

In 1939 he moved to Azerbaijan and worked at the Baku Conservatory until 1957, becoming a professor in 1949. From 1944 he was deputy chairman of the board of the Union of Composers of the Azerbaijan SSR, and in 1949–1953 its executive secretary. His Baku students included Fikret Amirov, Murad Kazhlayev and Suleyman Aleskerov. In 1956 he received the title Honoured Art Worker of the Azerbaijan SSR.

From 1957 until the end of his life he taught composition at the Tashkent Conservatory as a professor. His Tashkent students include Nurilla Zakirov and Abram Kabakov. He was named Honoured Art Worker of the Uzbek SSR in 1964 and People’s Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1978.

Zeidman wrote eight operas, several ballets, musical comedies and dramas, symphonies, chamber works, romances and songs. His operas include “Masquerade” and “Woe from Wit”, based on Russian classics; in Tashkent he co-wrote the opera “Zaynab and Omon” with Uzbek colleagues.

Boris Zeidman died in Tashkent on 30 December 1981; some reference works give the date of death as 1 January 1982.