Boris Zeidman was a Soviet composer and music teacher, born in St. Petersburg on February 10, 1909. He studied composition at the Leningrad Conservatory with Maximilian Steinberg, graduating in 1931, and completed postgraduate studies under Steinberg in 1936.
Zeidman taught music theory at colleges in Saratov and Leningrad. From 1936 to 1939, he also taught composition and orchestration at the Leningrad Conservatory. He worked in Azerbaijan from 1939 to 1957, teaching at the Azerbaijan State Conservatory and becoming a professor in 1949. He later moved to Uzbekistan and became a professor at the Tashkent Conservatory in 1957. He also wrote articles about the work of Azerbaijani composers and taught Fikret Amirov and Murad Kazhlaev.
His operas included Masquerade, based on Mikhail Lermontov; Woe from Wit, based on Alexander Griboyedov; Son of the Regiment, based on Valentin Kataev; Twelfth Night, based on Shakespeare; and Russian People, based on Konstantin Simonov. His ballets included The Golden Key, The Man Who Laughs, The Thieving Magpie, and Dragon and the Sun. He also wrote symphonies, overtures, concertos for piano, viola, bassoon, cello, and violin, chamber works, songs, choral music, and music for theater and film.
Zeidman was named an Honored Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR in 1956 and of the Uzbek SSR in 1964, and a People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1978. He died in Tashkent on January 1, 1982.