Alexander Siloti

Alexander Ilyich Siloti (9 October 1863 – 8 December 1945) was a Russian pianist, conductor, teacher, and musical public figure. He was born at his mother’s estate, Znamenskoye (also referred to as Znamenka), in the Tambov Governorate, and was baptized in the local Church of the Sign. Through his mother (Yulia Arkadyevna, née Rachmaninova) he was a cousin of Sergei Rachmaninoff and later became one of Rachmaninoff’s teachers at the Moscow Conservatory.

Siloti entered the Moscow Conservatory at the age of eight, studying piano first with Nikolai Zverev and then with the conservatory director Nikolai Rubinstein. He also studied music theory with Pyotr Tchaikovsky, with whom he later formed a friendship. He graduated in 1882 with the title of “free artist” and a small Gold Medal, and in 1883–1886 he took private lessons with Franz Liszt.

Performing in Europe and Russia, Siloti gained wide recognition for his refined and talented playing and became regarded as one of the outstanding pianists of his time. From 1888 to 1891 he served as professor of piano at the Moscow Conservatory; among his pupils were Konstantin Igumnov, Alexander Goldenweiser, Lev Maximov, and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

In 1887 Siloti married Vera Pavlovna Tretyakova, daughter of Pavel Tretyakov, founder of the Tretyakov Gallery. From 1900 his permanent residence was Saint Petersburg. In the 1901–1902 season he conducted symphonic concerts for the Philharmonic Society in Moscow for the first time.

In 1903 he founded his own concert enterprise, “A. Siloti Concerts,” renting major venues in Saint Petersburg and engaging, for symphonic programs, the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre. Russian music occupied a significant place in his programming, and he often collaborated with his friend and colleague Alexander Ossovsky. In May 1917 Mariinsky Theatre artists elected him manager of the opera troupe.

After the October Revolution, Siloti organized an anti-Bolshevik strike at the end of 1917 in which the entire Mariinsky Theatre collective participated. The managerial posts were abolished by order of Anatoly Lunacharsky, and Siloti’s resignation was accepted by the theatre’s artistic and repertoire committee. On 13 January 1918 he was arrested and imprisoned in Kresty; with the help of the physician Ivan Manukhin and after a conversation with Felix Dzerzhinsky, he was released under an obligation to report to the authorities.

In 1919 Siloti emigrated with his family to Finland, then to Germany, and from 1922 lived in the United States. From 1926 to 1942 he taught piano in New York at the Juilliard School. In November 1941 he contributed money to the USSR Defense Fund.

Siloti died in New York City on 8 December 1945 and was buried at the cemetery of the Dormition Convent of Novodiveevo in Nanuet, New York. Recordings of his playing have survived. His family included sons Alexander (an artist and art historian) and Lev (also known as Levko), and daughters including Oksana and Kiriena, the latter a musician and teacher who studied with Alexander Glazunov.

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