Date of Birth

17 June 1882, Oranienbaum, Russian Empire [now Lomonosov, St. Petersburg, Russia]

Date of Death

6 April 1971, New York City, New York, USA

Igor Stravinsky's father was a singer at the opera, and thus Stravinsky became a student of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov after a short stint as a law student. Very much influenced by Russian composers, only his sponsor Sergei Diaghilev in Paris was able to convince him to try new styles of ballet, e.g. "Le sacre du printemps". Stravinsky was very flexible in his style and also composed jazz music as well as church music. During his lifetime Stravinsky put influence into all new styles of music, e.g. 12 tone, E music and others.

Is generally regarded as the father of "modern" classical music; a riot ensued at the 1913 premiere of his ballet Le Sacre du Primtemps.

Recorded a number of his works with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra in the 1960s, all of which he conducted.

Settled in the United States in 1939 after having become a French citizen in 1934. Became a U. S. citizen in 1946.

Was very much opposed to 12-tone writing, or serialism, early in his career, then turned to that style of composition in the 1950s.

He is considered by many to the greatest composer of the 20th Century, largely on the strength of his ballet "The Rite of Spring". Stravinsky was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His star, awarded for his work on radio, is located at 6340 Hollywood Blvd. He is the only classical composer to be so honored.

His 1913 ballet,"Le Sacre du Printemps" (The Rite of Spring), caused the greatest single revolution in classical music since Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony in the early 1800s. It was a complete break from the Romanticism of the nineteenth century with its strange and dissonant rhythms and sounds. It was a fiasco upon its premiere, but began to win wide acceptance as a concert piece just a year later.

Of the composers whose work was in the original Fantasia (1940), he was the only one living at the time.

Price:  £700.00