Nikolai Zhilyayev

Nikolai Sergeyevich Zhilyayev (18 October 1881, Kursk – 20 January 1938) was a Russian composer, pianist, music critic, and teacher. He studied privately with Sergei Taneyev from 1896 to 1900 and graduated in 1905 from the Moscow Conservatory in the composition class of Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov.

Between 1905 and 1909 he composed actively, and some of his works were published by the firm of Pyotr Jurgenson, but later he largely withdrew from composition. He also performed as a pianist; at the “Musical Exhibitions” in Moscow he accompanied the singer Maria Deisha-Sionitskaya.

Zhilyayev worked as a music critic for the journals “Zolotoye Runo” (The Golden Fleece), “Moskovsky Ezhenedelnik” (Moscow Weekly), and “Muzyka” (Music), and for the newspaper “Rul” (The Rudder), where he wrote under the pseudonym Per Gynt. As one of Alexander Scriabin’s close friends, he participated in editing a number of Scriabin’s compositions, including the late sonatas.

Shortly before the First World War he turned to teaching; among his pupils were Aleksei Stanchinsky, Samuil Feinberg, and Anatoly Alexandrov. During the Russian Civil War he served in Mikhail Tukhachevsky’s штаб (staff) as a bibliographer. From 1922 he was a member of the editorial board of the music section of Gosizdat, where he took part in preparing the complete collected works of Scriabin.

He taught composition at the Moscow Conservatory in 1926–1930 and again in 1933–1937. Noted for personal charisma and a broad intellectual outlook, he significantly influenced the creative views of his students.

Zhilyayev was arrested on 3 November 1937 and executed on 20 January 1938 by sentence of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR. He was posthumously rehabilitated in April 1961.

Connections

This figure has 4 connections in the art history graph.