Mikhail Meerovich

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Meerovich was a Soviet and Russian composer. He was born on February 26, 1920, in Kyiv, and at the age of ten moved with his parents to Moscow. In 1931 he began studying at the children's music school attached to the Moscow Conservatory, and in 1938 he entered its composition faculty.

With the beginning of the war, he was mobilized together with other conservatory students to build defensive fortifications in the Smolensk region. He was then evacuated to Saratov, where he completed his studies at the Moscow Conservatory in 1942 in composition under G. I. Litinsky and A. N. Alexandrov, and in 1944 in piano under Ya. I. Zak and A. G. Rubbakh.

From 1950 to 1953, Meerovich taught instrumentation and score reading for three years. After 1953 he devoted himself exclusively to creative work. In 1981 he was named an Honored Artist of the RSFSR.

Meerovich wrote in a wide range of genres. His stage works included the operas The Life and Adventures of Kotofeyev, or Concerto for Triangle and Orchestra, staged in Czechoslovakia in 1982, The True Story of Red Motl, and Miracle on the Seventh Day of the Feast of Tabernacles. He also composed the ballets Trilogy, based on poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky, Princess Kaguya, written for the fifteenth anniversary of the Tokyo Ballet troupe, and Transformation (The Incredible Story That Happened to Osipo Handzaburo), as well as the operetta Seven Robinsons.

His orchestral output included three orchestral suites, an overture, ceremonial and concert pieces, the Hungarian Suite for piano and orchestra, Gypsy Rhapsody, Czech Rhapsody, Yakut Concertino, two piano concertos, two symphonies, and a chamber symphony. He also wrote chamber music, including two string quartets, a suite for woodwind quartet, a trio for flute, violin, and viola, and A Little Night Serenade for English horn and violin. His keyboard works included three piano sonatas, a Ukrainian Suite, an allegro on Ukrainian folk themes, and a capriccio, while his vocal compositions included songs on texts by Yevgeny Dolmatovsky, Stepan Shchipachyov, Andriy Malyshko, and Vladimir Mayakovsky.

Meerovich was also the author of music for many animated films and feature films. His film and animation work was extensive and included scores for such films as On the Count's Ruins, Cruelty, Telegram, Colleagues, and Old-Fashioned Comedy, as well as a large number of animated productions, among them Hedgehog in the Fog, A Kitten Named Woof, The Musicians of Nemuha, and Tales of Tales. The composer's last work was the opera Sholom Aleichem.

He died of a heart attack in Moscow on July 12, 1993, at the age of seventy-three. He was buried on July 16 at Vvedenskoye Cemetery.

Connections

This figure has 1 connection in the Music Lineage catalog.