Dmitry Tolstoy
Dmitry Tolstoy (January 20, 1923 – August 14, 2003) was a Soviet and Russian composer, teacher, and memoirist. He was born in Berlin and died in St. Petersburg.
In 1943–1944, he studied composition with Vissarion Shebalin and piano with Vladimir Sofronitsky at the Moscow Conservatory. He graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory in 1947, where he studied composition with Boris Arapov, and completed postgraduate study in 1950 with Dmitri Shostakovich and later Vladimir Voloshinov. He taught at the Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Music School in 1951–1952 and joined the Leningrad Conservatory in 1967; he became an associate professor in 1977.
Tolstoy wrote operas, ballets, music for dramatic productions, and vocal works. His operas include Masquerade (1957), based on Mikhail Lermontov’s drama; Maryuta the Fisher Girl (1960), later revised as A Story of One Love; Russian Character (1966); The Garnet Bracelet (1973); and The Captain’s Daughter (1976). His ballets include Nuncha (1964) and Aelita.
His other works include the symphony Thoughts of the Homeland (1974), concertos for piano, oboe, and clarinet, and five string quartets. His piano music includes 24 sonatas, a set of 24 preludes dedicated to Vladimir Sofronitsky, and the cycle Andersen’s Fairy Tales. He also composed music for films, including The Road Leads into the Distance (1959), No Matter How the String Twists… (1961), and The Regional Committee Secretary (1963).