Sergei Aleksandrovich Koussevitzky (Russian: Сергей Александрович Кусевицкий) (July 26, 1874, Vyshny Volochyok – June 4, 1951, Boston, Massachusetts), was a Russian-born Jewish conductor, composer and double-bassist, known for his long tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949. (His forename is transliterated into English as either Sergei or Serge and his surname is transliterated as variously Koussevitzky, Kouss...
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Sergei Aleksandrovich Koussevitzky (Russian: Сергей Александрович Кусевицкий) (July 26, 1874, Vyshny Volochyok – June 4, 1951, Boston, Massachusetts), was a Russian-born Jewish conductor, composer and double-bassist, known for his long tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1924 to 1949. (His forename is transliterated into English as either Sergei or Serge and his surname is transliterated as variously Koussevitzky, Koussevitsky, Kussevitzky or, into Polish as Kusewicki.)
Koussevitzky was born into a poor Jewish family, growing up in Vyshny Volochyok, Tver Oblast, about 250 km northwest of Moscow. His parents were professional musicians who taught him violin, cello, and piano. At the age of fourteen he received a scholarship to the Musico-Dramatic Institute in Moscow for the study of double bass and music theory. He excelled at the bass, joining the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra at the age of twenty and succeeding his teacher as the principal bassist at twenty...
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