Kirill Kondrashin

Kirill Petrovich Kondrashin was born on March 6, 1914, in Russia. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1936, and worked as conductor at the Maly Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Leningrad from 1936-1943. He moved to Moscow in 1943 and worked as the conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre for 16 years. In 1960 Kondrashin was appointed the Artistic Director of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. He conducted the premiere of the Symphony No. 13 "Baby Yar" by Dmitri Shostakovich and Yevgeniy Yevtushenko in 1961. He left the Soviet Union in 1975 and took a post of principal conductor of Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1979. Kondrashin is known for his numerous recordings of the music of Soviet composers for Melodiya label during the 60's and 70's. He died on March 7, 1981.