Abram Stasevich, born Avraam Leibovich Stasevich, was a Soviet conductor and composer. He was born on 23 January 1906 in Simferopol, Russian Empire, into the family of Leib Aizikovich Stasevich, a Simferopol townsman, and Pesya Stasevich.
Stasevich played cello in the municipal symphony orchestra before entering the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied cello with Professor Semyon Kozolupov. After completing the course in 1931, he joined the conducting department led by Leo Ginzburg and received his conducting diploma in 1937.
From 1928 he played in the orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic. In 1936–1937 he served as assistant to the Hungarian conductor Eugen Szenkar, who had led the orchestra since 1934, and made his conducting debut in April 1937.
During the war years, Stasevich conducted at the Tbilisi Opera and the Ordzhonikidze Orchestra. From 1942 to 1944 he worked with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra while it was evacuated to Novosibirsk. He conducted the All-Union Radio Symphony Orchestra in Moscow from 1944 to 1952, toured frequently throughout the Soviet Union, and toured the United States in 1968.
His repertoire gave substantial attention to music by his contemporaries. He gave the first performances of Nikolai Myaskovsky's Symphony-Ballad No. 22 and Divertissement, works from Sergei Prokofiev's ballet Cinderella, and several compositions by Dmitri Shostakovich. He also worked on Sergei Eisenstein's films Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible.
As a composer, Stasevich wrote several works, including the cantata Borodino (1964) and the oratorio A Tale of the Great Patriotic War and the Russian Warrior (1965). In 1957 he was named an Honored Art Worker of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
Stasevich died on 27 November 1971 in Kislovodsk, Stavropol Krai, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Union.