Alexander Ossovsky

Alexander Vyacheslavovich Ossovsky (Russian: Александр Вячеславович Оссовский, March 31 [O.S. March 19] 1871 – July 31, 1957) was a renowned Russian musical writer, critic and musicologist, professor at Saint Petersburg Conservatory, pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and friend of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Alexander Siloti and Nikolai Tcherepnin.

Alexander Ossovsky was born on March 31, 1871 in Kishinev, Bessarabia, Russian Empire into the family of Vyacheslav Stepanovich Ossovsky, who was a Department Chair in the Odessa Court; his mother was Yevgenia Cherkunova. The composer Mykola Vilinsky was his cousin. Ossovsky graduated from the Law School at Moscow University (1893).

After graduation he worked at the Ministry of Justice in Saint Petersburg. From 1896 to 1898 he studied at Saint Petersburg Conservatory. From 1900 to 1902 he studied composition with the composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1894 Ossovsky started his career as a talented and prolific musical writer, musical critic and musicologist. Between 1915 and 1918 and 1921 to 1952, Ossovsky was a professor at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory (then Leningrad Conservatory), and in 1937 he became a Deputy Director there.

He was one of the founders of "Muzykal'nyi Sovremennik" ("Musical Contemporary") magazine in Saint Petersburg (1915–17). From 1923 to 1925 Ossovsky was the Director, and from 1933 to 1936 the Art Chair, at the Leningrad Philharmonic. From 1943 to 1952 he was Director at the Leningrad Music and Theater Research Institute. In 1931–33 he worked at the State Hermitage Museum in Leningrad.

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