Stravinsky, Igor Fedorovich

Stravinsky, Igor Fedorovich (1882-1971), Russian composer.

Igor Stravinsky was the son of a singer but he studied at the university in St. Petersburg to be a lawyer.

Then, at the age of twenty-three, he became a friend of the composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and received music lessons from him.

Five years later, Stravinsky's ballet, The Firebird, was performed in Paris by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and overnight Stravinsky became famous.

A year later, a new ballet, Petrushka, added to his fame. During the First World War (1914-18), Stravinsky went to live in Switzerland.

Later he moved to France and then to the United States, where he became an American citizen.

He produced a great variety of work, including the ballet The Rite of Spring (1913), Symphony of Psalms (1930), Symphony in C Major (1940), and the opera The Rake's Progress (1951) and the ballet Agon (1957).

See Igor Stravinsky (20th Century Composers) ~ Michael Oliver

and

Igor Stravinsky - An Autobiography ~ Igor Stravinsky