Boris Arapov was a Soviet composer and teacher, born in St. Petersburg on September 12, 1905. His mother gave him his first music lessons, and he later studied with pianist Zaitseva-Zhukovich. He began composing at the age of nine.
In 1921, Arapov began piano studies with Maria Yudina and Samariy Savshinsky. A hand injury ended his prospects as a pianist, and in 1923 he entered the composition department of the Petrograd Conservatory, where Vladimir Shcherbachov and Mikhail Chernov taught him. After graduating, he taught music theory at the Central Music Technical School and worked at the Institute for the History of the Arts. He joined the Leningrad Conservatory faculty in 1930 and became a professor in 1940.
From 1951, Arapov headed the conservatory’s orchestration department; from 1974 until 1992, he led its composition department. His students included Boris Arkhimandritov, Gennady Banshchikov, Leonid Desyatnikov, Alexander Knaifel, Sergei Slonimsky, Dmitri Tolstoy, Vladislav Uspensky, Yuri Falik, Georgy Firtich, Vladimir Tsytovich, and Isaac Schwartz. He was named Honored Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1944 and of the RSFSR in 1957, and People’s Artist of the RSFSR in 1976.
Arapov’s output was dominated by large-scale orchestral works, often written to a program. Folk music was an important influence, and he studied it during trips to Armenia, Georgia, Uzbekistan, China, and Korea. His works include the Tajik Suite (1938), the opera Khoja Nasreddin (1944), the Russian Suite (1951), the opera Rain (1967), the ballet The Picture of Dorian Gray (1971), seven symphonies, and a 1987 symphonic poem inspired by Chinghiz Aitmatov’s novel The Scaffold.
His music was performed and recorded by musicians including Grigory Sokolov, who played his sonatas and Concerto for Piano, Violin, Percussion, and Chamber Orchestra; Daniil Shafran, who performed the Cello Sonata; Gennady Rozhdestvensky, who conducted Russian Seasons; and Arvid Jansons, who performed the Violin Concerto. Arapov died in St. Petersburg on January 27, 1992.