-->

• Igor Stravinsky was a 20th century Russian composer. He is considered by many to be the most influential composer of his generation.

  Stravinsky achieved international fame by composing the scores to three ballets commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes: The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. The Rite's 1913 premiere in Paris famously provoked a full scale riot for what was then considered to be its shockingly modern score. In the 1920s, Stravinsky went through a neoclassical phase, but by the 1950s, he had become affiliated with serialism.

  In addition to composing, Stravinsky was also a pianist, conductor and author. He published a number of books throughout his career including an autobiography in 1936.

  Stravinsky was born in Oranienbaum (Lomonosov), Russia in 1882. Over the course of his life, he would live in Switzerland, France and eventually the United States. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1945. He lived in both Los Angeles and New York and was close with a circle of Russian intellectual emigrés including George Balanchine, Otto Klemperer and Arthur Rubenstein.

  Stravinsky died in New York City in 1971. He was posthumously honored with the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1987.

• Fast Facts

  1. Born: June 17, 1882
  2. Full name: Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky
  3. The Rite of Spring ballet caused a riot at its Paris premiere
  4. Property confiscated during the Russian Revolution
  5. Exiled from Russia, he was later welcomed back on a trip to the Soviet Union for his 80th birthday
  6. Died: April 6, 1971

• Related Mahalo Pages

  Steve Reich | Robert Schumann | Claude Debussy | Johann Sebastian Bach | Pablo Picasso | Leonard Bernstein | Philip Glass | Franz Schubert

Categories

• View History
• Discuss on the Message Board
• Embed this Page
• Share this page