Born in Propoisk on 14 May 1892, died in Princeton on 12 October 1966; Arthur Vincent Lourié was a Russian-American composer. From 1909 he studied piano in St Petersburg and composition with Alexander Glazunov; in 1913 he left the conservatory without graduating. He belonged to the avant-garde circles of St Petersburg and in 1914 was among the first to set poems by Anna Akhmatova to music; early on he worked with twelve-note approaches and with graphic notation. After the October Revolution he headed the music division of the Commissariat of Popular Enlightenment under Anatoly Lunacharsky. In August 1922 he left Russia, and from 1924 he lived in Paris, where he was close to the circle around Igor Strawinsky. In 1941, helped by Sergei Alexandrowitsch Kussewizki, he fled to the USA, and he lived latterly in Princeton. His output comprises symphonies, chamber music, songs and the operas “The Feast during the Plague” and “The Blackamoor of Peter the Great” (1949-1961). In the Cybele catalogue his piano music appears on Piano Works around Russian Futurism (Vol. 2, 2014), recorded by Thomas Günther on the Steinway D concert grand.
Arthur Vincent Lourié
Composer
