Ippolitov-Ivanov (Ivanov) Mikhail

Ippolitov-Ivanov (Ivanov) Mikhail (1859–1935), Russian composer, conductor, teacher. Born in Gatchina, Russia. In 1882 he graduated from the Petersburg Conservatoire (N. Rimsky-Korsakov’s class of compositions). In 1882 – 1892 he lived and worked in Tbilisi. He greatly contributed to the advance of Georgian professional musical culture. He supervised the Georgian branch of Russian Musical Society and Tbilisi Musical School, where he taught the theory and history of music. Later, Tbilisi Conservatoire was founded on the basis of the said music school. His disciples were Zakaria Paliashvili and Dimitri Arakishvili. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov arranged and conducted concerts of symphonic music in Tbilisi. In 1884 – 1893 he was the conductor of Tbilisi Theater of Opera and Ballet. His wife, singer Varvara Zarudnaya gave successful performances in the same theater. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov was one of the first collectors and publishers of Georgian musical folklore. The traces of Georgian folk melodies are visible in his works – in his suites, his symphonic poem, etc. He devoted his research Georgian Folk Song and Its Present State to the Georgian folk songs (1895); he also contributed to putting down the notes of Georgian liturgical chants. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov’s operas Ruth (1887), Azra (1890), Asya (1900), Treason (based on the drama by A. Sumbatashvili-Yuzhin) were staged at Tbilisi Theater of Opera.

In 1903 M. Ippolitov-Ivanov was invited to work at the Moscow Conservatoire, where he traveled a splendid creative road from the job of a professor of conservatoire to the position of the Rector of the Conservatoire and Chairman of the Union of Writers and Composers of Russia. However, in the autumn of his life, he was overcome by nostalgic memories and accepted the invitation of N. Cherepin, Director of Tbilisi Conservatoire, to return to Tbilisi. In 1924 M. Ippolitov-Ivanov and his wife arrived in Tbilisi.

In 1924 – 1925 he held the position of the Rector of Tbilisi Conservatoire. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov died in Moscow.