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Sergei Rachmaninoff - Composer

By Melissa Kelly, About.com

Birth:

April 1, 1873, Novgorod, Russia

Death:

March 28, 1943, Beverly Hills, California

Early Influences:

  • Father and Grandfather both played piano
  • At six received his first piano lesson
  • His cousin, Alexander Siloti, was an accomplished pianist and tutored him

Education:

  • Attended Saint Petersburg Conservatory
  • Graduated from St. Petersburg Conservatory in Piano in 1891
  • Graduated from St. Petersburg Conservatory in Composition in 1892

Major Accomplishments:

  • C-Sharp Minor Prelude, 1892
  • Second Piano Concerto, 1901
  • Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, 1934
  • Third Symphony, 1936

Significance:

  • The last of the great Russian romantic composers
  • Style was characterized by massive chords

Contemporaries:

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