Pavel Ivanov-Radkevich
Pavel Ivanov-Radkevich, born Pavel Ivanov, was a Russian and Soviet spiritual composer, choirmaster, pianist, music teacher, and public figure. He was born in St. Petersburg on March 16, 1878, and died in Moscow on December 1, 1942.
As a child, he sang in church choirs and studied music theory, violin, and piano at a private school for gifted children. In 1894 he entered the regent department of the Imperial Court Singing Chapel, where he studied church and choral singing, violin, and musical theory. He graduated in 1897 with the qualification of regent, leading his class. While a student, he wrote his first hymn, “Mercy of Peace.”
After graduating, Ivanov moved to Krasnoyarsk to teach singing and music at the teachers’ seminary. He went on to teach at schools and colleges across the city and became a prominent private piano teacher and vocal instructor. He developed his own teaching system; his pupils included opera and chamber singer Pyotr Slovtsov, Bolshoi Theatre soloist Mikhail Sladkovsky, and pianist and musicologist Lev Kozlov-Kaltat.
Ivanov organized choirs, concerts, and opera performances with the participation of students and local musicians. In 1910 he founded and led the orchestra of the Society of Music and Literature Lovers. His children’s opera “The Strawberry Princess,” based on a fairy tale by Poliksena Solovyova, was first performed with piano accompaniment in 1914–15. He later led performances of the work with a symphony orchestra, conducting them himself. He also wrote secular vocal works, often setting poems by Russian poets of the nineteenth century, and sacred choral music that continues to be performed in Orthodox churches. His liturgical works include “It Is Truly Meet,” “Praise the Name of the Lord,” and “O Gentle Light.”
In 1920, Ivanov initiated the founding of Krasnoyarsk’s first professional music school, the People’s Conservatory, which opened that April with more than 450 students in its first year. He moved to Moscow in 1922 and taught singing at a local school. He also wrote autobiographical notes about his early life and education. He married Ekaterina Fateeva in 1898, and they had four sons, including composer Nikolai Ivanov-Radkevich.