Leonid Vladimirovich Nikolayev

Leonid Vladimirovich Nikolayev ( _ru. Леони́д Влади́мирович Никола́ев, August 13, 1878–October 11, 1942) was a Russian/Soviet pianist, composer and pedagogue.

He was born in Kiev and died in Tashkent.

Nikolayev studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Sergei Taneyev and Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov. For many years Nikolayev was a professor of piano at the Leningrad Conservatoire, and was for a short and unsuccessful period director of the institution.

His students at the Conservatory included Vladimir Sofronitsky, Maria Yudina, and Dmitri Shostakovich.Laurel Fay, Shostakovich: A Life p. 18]

He became close friends with Shostakovich — Shostakovich "admired him as a first-class musician and a man of great wisdom and learning" [Shostakovich, ed. Glikman, p.233] and also said of him: "He trained not simply pianists, but in the first place thinking musicians. He didn't create a school in the specific sense of some single narrow professional direction. He shaped and nurtured a broad aesthetic trend in the sphere of pianistic art." Shostakovich's 1943 Piano Sonata no. 2 was dedicated to his former teacher.

Nikolayev was evacuated to Tashkent along with other musicians, after Germany invaded Russia in 1941, where he soon died.

His composition output includes symphonic works, choral works, string quartets, and solo works for violin, cello, and piano.

Notes

References

* Shostakovich, Dmitri and Glikman, Isaak (2001). "Story of a Friendship: The Letters of Dmitry Shostakovich to Isaak Glikman". Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-3979-5.
* Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20th Century Classical Musicians
* cite book
last = Fay
first = Laurel
year = 1999
title = Shostakovich: A Life
publisher = Oxford University Press
id = ISBN 0-19-513438-9