Valery Zhelobinsky

Valery Viktorovich Zhelobinsky was a Soviet and Russian composer, pianist and pedagogue.

Life and works

Zhelobinsky studied music firstly at Tambov and then from 1928 to 1932 at the Leningrad Conservatory with Vladimir Shcherbachov. He performed across the Soviet Union as a soloist. He returned to Tambov in 1942 where he taught at the College of Music and was Chairman of the Composers' Union.
For his short career, Zhelobinsky's output was large. His four operas, which include The Peasant of Komarino, produced in Leningrad in 1933, and Mother, were well received. He also wrote orchestral music including six symphonies, and three piano concertos. His Romantic Poem for violin and orchestra was premiered in Leningrad together with the first performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's Sixth Symphony in November 1939.
From his numerous piano works, the 'Six short études' were introduced to the United States by Vladimir Horowitz and were published there in 1946. Two of these études were recorded by Oscar Levant. In addition, a selection from his opera Mother was also recorded in 1946 for the Victor Records label in the United States featuring the vocalist Sidor Belarsky, the orchestral accordionist John Serry and the Mischa Borr Orchestra conducted by Mischa Borr.
Shostakovich thought highly of Zhelobinsky, and argued in a 1951 letter to Mikhail Chulaki, secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers, that he should be included in a proposed list of 100 Russian composers, pointing out that 'dying at a very young stage of development, never reached the peak of composing talents'.