Nikolai Malko

Nikolai Malko was a Russian and Soviet conductor, music teacher, and musician. He was born in Brailov in the Vinnytsia district of the Podolia Governorate of the Russian Empire on 4 May 1883, and died in Sydney, Australia, on 23 June 1961. From 1929 onward he lived and worked abroad.

Malko studied at the Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg University and then at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. There he studied composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Anatoly Lyadov, and Alexander Glazunov, and conducting with Nikolai Tcherepnin. He later continued his training in Munich with Felix Mottl. He made his debut in 1909 as an assistant ballet conductor at the Mariinsky Theatre and, shortly before the revolution, obtained the post of chief conductor.

At the beginning of the Soviet era, Malko, who regarded the new government positively, became one of the leading figures of musical life. From 1918 to 1921 he headed the Vitebsk People's Conservatory as its first director and also led its symphony orchestra. From 1922 to 1924 he was a professor at conservatories in Moscow, Kharkiv, and Kyiv, and in 1924 to 1925 he taught at the Mykola Lysenko Kyiv Musical and Drama Institute. He then became chief conductor of the philharmonic society and professor at the conservatory in Leningrad from 1925 to 1928.

Malko directed various orchestras, including the Leningrad Philharmonic, and gave a number of premieres. Among them were Myaskovsky's Fifth Symphony in 1920 and Shostakovich's First Symphony in 1926. In 1929 he left the Soviet Union and worked as a guest conductor in Vienna, Prague, Copenhagen, London, and other cities.

In 1940 he settled in Chicago. He later led various ensembles in the United States, including the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra from 1942 to 1946, and taught at Mills College in California. From 1957 he directed the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and in 1959 he toured the Soviet Union with it.

The orchestral playing under Malko's direction was distinguished by liveliness of interpretation and flawless technical precision. He made a number of recordings with the Royal Danish Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and he wrote a book on the art of conducting, The Conductor and his Baton, published in Copenhagen.

In 1963 the International Nikolai Malko Conducting Competition began to be held in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, once every four years. His pupils included Leo Ginzburg, Alexander Melik-Pashayev, Evgeny Mikeladze, Evgeny Mravinsky, Ilya Musin, Nikolai Rabinovich, Gleb Taranov, Boris Khaikin, Isai Sherman, and Mark Shneiderman.

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