Lev Tseitlin
Lev Tseitlin was a Soviet violinist and teacher. He was born on March 15, 1881, in Tiflis, now Tbilisi, Georgia, into the family of jeweler Moisey Tseitlin. He began studying the violin in Tiflis with E. A. Kolchin and graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1901, where he had studied with Leopold Auer.
From 1902 to 1905, Tseitlin lived in Paris and studied musical theory at the Schola Cantorum de Paris with Charles Bordes, V. Vreuls, and Vincent d'Indy. He subsequently studied in Brussels with Eugène Ysaÿe and worked as concertmaster of the Colonne Orchestra in Paris.
While touring Russia in 1906, he met the pianist Vera Rozina, who soon became his wife, and decided to remain in the country. He served as concertmaster of the Zimin Theatre orchestra and, from 1908 to 1917, as solo concertmaster of Serge Koussevitzky's symphony orchestra. He later became concertmaster of the USSR State Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1936, and of the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra.
From 1918 to 1920, Tseitlin was a professor at the Musical-Dramatic Institute. From 1920 until his death he taught at the Moscow Conservatory, where he headed the violin department; he also taught at the Leningrad Conservatory and at the Moscow Central Music School for Gifted Children. In 1922, on his initiative, Persimfans, the world's first conductorless symphony ensemble, was organized. The orchestra was an important presence in Moscow's musical life from 1922 to 1932.
As a teacher, Tseitlin was one of the founders of the Soviet violin school. His pupils included Rudolf Barshai, Boris Goldstein, Boris Belenky, Anahit Ter-Gabrielyan, Mark Zatulovsky, Boris Fishman, Semyon Furer, Ilya Shpilberg, Galina Barinova, and Alexander Gorokhov. He was named Honored Art Worker of the Russian SFSR in 1927 and received a Doctor of Art History degree in 1941. His awards included two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor.
Tseitlin died in Moscow on January 9, 1952, and was buried at Vvedenskoye Cemetery.