Johann Admoni

Johánn Admóni (original surname: Krasny, German: Rot, Russian: Иоганн Григорьевич Адмони; 1906, Dessau – 1979, Leningrad) is a Soviet composer, pianist, teacher, and public person, the son of the famous St. Petersburg historian, publicist, and Jewish community leader Gregor Red-Admoni (Russian: Григорий Яковлевич Красный-Адмони). He is the elder brother of the famous Soviet linguist Vladimir Admoni. Director of the Seminar of Amateur composers in the Leningrad Composer's House, Soviet Union (now Saint-Petersburg, Russia).

Johann Admoni is the son of the famous St. Petersburg historian, publicist, and Jewish public person Gregor Red-Admoni. As a child he was carrying his father's surname that is Krasny ("Red"), however, since 1917 his father has started using the Jewish translation of the word Red, which is Admoni. This surname was passed to his children: Johann Admoni and his younger brother Vladimir Admoni, the famous linguist and Germanist. It is interesting to note that his mother Raisa Pumper, the daughter of a Saint-Petersburg lawyer, moved to Germany because of her family ties, and so Johann Admoni was actually born in the German city Dessau.

In 1922, Johann Admoni entered the Petrograd (later Leningrad) State University the faculty of Social Sciences. He successfully finished it as a lawyer in 1926. However, from his childhood, Johann Admoni was highly interested in music. The basic knowledge he received from his father, who had a talent in singing and he even spent some time in learning how to sing in the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. So, in 1927 Johann Admoni took an exam to enter the Leningrad conservatory where he presented his romances performing them on his own and successfully passed the exam. His teacher became M. O. Steinberg, who had been teaching before the famous composer Dmitry Shostakovich. After finishing the conservatory in 1931 the young composer has moved to Vologda, to work as a musical director and composer in the Drama Theatre.

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