Nicolai Malko

Nicolai Andreyevich Malko (Russian: Никола́й Андре́евич Малько́, Ukrainian: Микола Андрійович Малько; 4 May 1883 – 23 June 1961) was a symphonic conductor.

Malko was born in Brailiv, Vinnytsia oblast, Ukraine. His father was Ukrainian, his mother Russian. In 1906 he completed his studies in history and philology at Saint Petersburg University. In 1909 he graduated from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, where he had included Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov and Lyadov among his teachers. He published articles on music criticism in the Russian press and performed as a pianist and later a conductor. In 1909 he became a conductor at the Mariinsky Theatre and, six years later, the head conductor there.

From 1909 he studied conducting in Munich under Felix Mottl. In 1918 he became the director of the conservatory in Vitebsk and from 1921 taught at the Moscow Conservatory. From 1921 to 1924 he shuttled between Vitebsk, Moscow, Kiev and Kharkiv, conducting in each of these cities. In 1925 he became a professor of the Leningrad Conservatory. He became conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra in 1926 and conducted the world première of the Symphony No. 1 by his pupil Dmitri Shostakovich that same year, and the premiere of Shostakovitch's Symphony No. 2, dedicated to him, in 1927. Malko also conducted the premiere of Nikolai Myaskovsky's 5th Symphony. Myaskovsky's 9th Symphony was dedicated to Nikolai Malko.

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