Alexander Kanershtein was a Soviet and Ukrainian composer, music teacher, and pianist. He was born in Kyiv on July 13, 1933, the son of conductor Mikhail Kanershtein.
In 1955, he graduated from the Kyiv Conservatory, where he studied composition with Borys Lyatoshynsky. The following year, he completed piano studies with K. Mikhailov. Conductor Natan Rakhlin performed Kanershtein’s First Symphony in 1955.
Kanershtein began teaching at the Kyiv Music College in 1957. His works included seven symphonies, piano and violin concertos, concertos for cello and for oboe and bassoon, the operas Those Who Did Not Bow Their Heads and Hotel of Love, and the ballets Malchish-Kibalchish and Eupraksia. He also wrote music for animated films.
He was named Honored Artist of Ukraine in 1993 and received the Borys Lyatoshynsky Prize in 1996 and the Mykola Verykivsky Prize in 2003. He died in Kyiv on December 24, 2006.