Boris Getzelev
Boris Getzelev was a Soviet and Russian composer, musicologist, and teacher in higher education. He was one of the founders and leading representatives of the Nizhny Novgorod composers’ school. He was born in Samara, then called Kuybyshev, on December 27, 1940, and died on January 8, 2021.
As a school student, Getzelev studied at a music school and played piano in an ensemble he helped organize. After his family moved to Gorky, now Nizhny Novgorod, he enrolled in the Gorky Music College. On the advice of teacher Arkady Nesterov, he entered the Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory in 1961. He graduated in 1966 with a composition degree; his graduation work was Burlesque. He studied piano with Boris Marants and, in 1972, completed a part-time postgraduate assistantship at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory in Rodion Shchedrin’s class.
After graduating, Getzelev began teaching music theory and composition at the Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory, later moving to its composition and orchestration department. He became a professor and headed that department from 1988 until 2021. He taught more than 50 composers and more than 40 musicologists.
Getzelev wrote orchestral, choral, chamber, and vocal music, as well as music for television and the theater. His works include the symphonies Fantasias and On the Edge, concertos for piano, cello, and clarinet, and choral works such as Keep Me, My Talisman and Harmful Advice. He also wrote for the Nizhny Novgorod television service, the Young Spectator’s Theater, the Nizhny Novgorod Puppet Theater, and local choirs. He published articles on contemporary music and took part in academic conferences.
For more than two decades, Getzelev led the Nizhny Novgorod organization of the Russian Composers’ Union and also served as a secretary of the union. He was named an Honored Artist of Russia and received the Order of Friendship, the Dmitri Shostakovich Prize, and the Nizhny Novgorod City Prize.