Arseny Koreshchenko
Arseny Koreshchenko was a Russian composer and pianist, born in Moscow on December 6/18, 1870; the infobox also gives December 8, 1870. He died in Kharkiv on January 6, 1921; the infobox records an alternative date of January 3, 1921.
During his adolescence, Koreshchenko lived and studied at Nikolai Zverev’s private boarding school. He entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1884 and graduated in 1891 with a gold medal. His teachers included Sergei Taneyev, Anton Arensky, and Pavel Pabst. Until 1894, he taught musical encyclopedia and harmony at the conservatory.
From 1894, Koreshchenko worked as a music critic and teacher. He established his own school, the Arseny Koreshchenko School, where he taught piano in the advanced courses from 1906 to 1919. In 1919, he moved with his wife to Kharkiv, became rector of the Kharkiv Conservatory, also known as the Music Academy, and taught piano and composition.
His principal works include the operas The Feast of Belshazzar, The Angel of Death, and The Ice House; the ballet The Magic Mirror; music for Euripides’ tragedies The Trojan Women and Iphigenia at Aulis; two symphonic poems; the Armenian Suite; a lyrical symphony; the cantata Don Juan; Armenian and Georgian songs; Concert Fantasy for piano and orchestra; and Children’s Scenes for piano.
Contemporaries responded to Koreshchenko’s music in different ways. Alexander Glazunov personally recommended him to the administration of the imperial theaters to write The Magic Mirror, but the ballet’s score was criticized in the press after its premiere. A frequently attributed epigram mocked Koreshchenko’s music, although its actual author is unknown. According to Vladimir Gilyarovsky, however, everyone admired the young composer-pianist’s talent. Koreshchenko’s wife, Elena Koreshchenko, was a piano teacher.