Andrey Arends (full name Andrey (Heinrich) Fyodorovich Arends) was a Russian and Soviet composer, conductor, violinist, and teacher. He was born in Moscow on March 2, 1855. In 1877, he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied violin with Ferdinand Laub and music theory with Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
Arends conducted ballet performances at the Bolshoi Theatre from 1896 to 1899 and served as its chief ballet conductor from 1900 to 1924. Under his direction, Glazunov’s Raymonda was first staged in Moscow in 1900, and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake was revived there in 1901. His conducting repertoire included La Bayadère, The Enchanted Mirror by Alexander Koreschenko, Harlequinade by Riccardo Drigo, and Adam’s Giselle.
His works include a concerto for viola and orchestra, symphonies, overtures to Schiller’s The Bride of Messina and the operas Almanzor and The Legend, romances, and music for Henrik Ibsen’s The Northern Heroes. He wrote the ballet Salammbo and additional numbers and variations for other ballets. He also orchestrated music for Schubertiana, Love Is Quick! to music by Edvard Grieg, and Eunice and Petronius to music by Frédéric Chopin.
Arends was named an Honored Artist of the State Academic Theaters in 1922. He taught at the Music and Drama School of the Moscow Philharmonic Society. He died in Moscow on April 27, 1924, after a brief illness, and was buried at Vvedenskoye Cemetery.