Vasily Ilyich Safonov (; 27 February 1918), also known as Wassily Safonoff, was a Russian

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

, teacher, conductor and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Biography

Vasily Safonov, or Safonoff as he was known in the West during his lifetime, was born at (also known as Itschory, Itsyursk, or Itsiursk), Russian

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(now in Chechnya), son of the Cossack General Ilya Ivanovich Safonov. Safonov was educated at the Imperial Alexandra Lyceum, Saint Petersburg, and at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory of Music from 1881 until 1885 under Louis Brassin. He graduated as Bachelor of Laws, and won the gold medal as a pianist of the Conservatory. He was also a pupil of Theodor Leschetizky and Nikolai Zaremba. Safonov had several daughters. Anna Vasilyevna Timiryova (1893–1975) was a poet who spent much of her life in labor camps or in exile. Varvara Vasilievna Safonova (1895–1942), a painter, died during the

siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

. Yelena Vasilievna Safonova (1902–1980), studied painting, designed theatre costumes, and published children's books. From 1932 to 1958 she lived in exile in the city of

Kursk Kursk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur (Kursk Oblast), Kur, Tuskar, and Seym (river), Seym rivers. It has a population of Kursk ...

. Safonov was never a particularly successful composer in his own right, but was a master music educator, becoming director of the

Moscow Conservatory The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory () is a higher musical educational institution located in Moscow, Russia. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in musical performance and musical research. Th ...

in 1889. He was the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York. Safonov-and-pupils

He was the teacher of some of the best Russian pianists, notably Alexander Scriabin, Nikolai Medtner, Josef Lhévinne and Rosina Bessie (later Lhévinne). He also taught the noted teacher and theorist Madame Maria Levinskaya, and Marthe Servine, a French-American composer and pianist. After retiring from teaching, Safonov became well known as a conductor. He was the conductor of the first Moscow performance of Tchaikovsky's ''Pathétique'' Symphony (No. 6), on 4/16 December 1893, seven weeks after its premiere under the composer's baton and six weeks after his death. He conducted nearly all the principal orchestras in Europe, including the philharmonic orchestras of

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and Prague, the

Lamoureux Orchestra The Orchestre Lamoureux () officially known as the Société des Nouveaux-Concerts and also known as the Concerts Lamoureux) is an orchestral concert society which once gave weekly concerts by its own orchestra, founded in Paris by Charles Lamoure ...

of Paris, the London Symphony, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the New York Philharmonic Society. Safonov is the first known modern conductor to have dispensed with the use of the baton, which came about when he forgot to take his baton to a rehearsal on a certain occasion; he chose to use his hands alone, and decided that from then on a baton was entirely unnecessary.'' Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', 5th ed., 1954, vol. VII, p. 359 Safonov died in Kislovodsk on 27 February 1918, aged 66.

His voice

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Safonov, Vasily Ilyich 1852 births 1918 deaths 19th-century classical pianists 19th-century male musicians from the Russian Empire Composers from the Russian Empire Conductors (music) from the Russian Empire Music educators from the Russian Empire Classical pianists from the Russian Empire Piano educators Honorary members of the Royal Philharmonic Society Saint Petersburg Conservatory alumni Music directors of the New York Philharmonic Pupils of Nikolai Zaremba Academic staff of Moscow Conservatory