Dimitri Tiomkin
Dimitri Tiomkin was an American composer, arranger, and conductor, best known for his film scores. He was born on May 10/22, 1894, in Kremenchuk, in the Russian Empire, and died in London on November 11, 1979.
His mother taught him piano, and by the age of 13 he was studying at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He studied piano with Felix Blumenfeld and Isabelle Vengerova, and composition, harmony, and counterpoint with Alexander Glazunov. He earned money giving private lessons and playing piano in cinemas, an early introduction to film music. He also accompanied ballerina Tamara Karsavina and comedian Max Linder.
In 1921, Tiomkin moved to Berlin, where he studied with Ferruccio Busoni, Egon Petri, and Michael Zador. He toured Europe and the United States in a piano duo with Mikhail Khariton, then settled in the United States after advice from Feodor Chaliapin. In 1928, he performed George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto at its European premiere in Paris. His Hollywood career began in 1929, when he supplied original music for the dance company led by ballerina and choreographer Albertina Rasch, whom he married in 1926.
By the early 1930s, Tiomkin had become a prominent Hollywood film composer, particularly known for his scores for Westerns. He began a long collaboration with director Frank Capra on Lost Horizon (1937), experimenting with unusual instrumental combinations and matching musical timbres to actors’ voices. The score was nominated for an Academy Award. His other work from the decade included adapting Johann Strauss’s music for The Great Waltz (1938).
Tiomkin won two Academy Awards in 1953, for the score and the song “Do Not Forsake Me” from High Noon (1952). He won again for The High and the Mighty (1954) and The Old Man and the Sea (1958). Across a film career lasting more than 30 years, he received 22 Academy Award nominations. His work also included the television theme for Rawhide, heard in all 217 episodes, and the score for Igor Talankin’s film Tchaikovsky (1970), his last film assignment.
After Albertina Rasch died in 1967, Tiomkin moved to London in 1968. He married Olivia Cynthia Patch in 1972. His honors included the French Legion of Honour, which he received as a Chevalier and later as an Officer, and Spain’s Order of Isabella the Catholic. His music continued to be used in films, including the theme from The Alamo in the opening credits of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009).