Alexander Winkler (composer)

Alexander (Gustav) Adolfovich Winkler, also Alexandre Adolfovitch Winkler (Russian: Александр Адольфович (Густав) Винклер; 3 March 1865 in Kharkiv – 6 August 1935 in Besançon), was a Russian pianist, composer and music educator of German descent.

Winkler completed his studies in law at the University of Kharkiv, Russian Empire, in 1887 and also studied piano at the Kharkiv Music School of the Russian Musical Society, graduating in 1889.

He continued to study piano with Alphonse Duvernoy in Paris, and in Vienna with Theodor Leschetizky, where he was also a composition student of Karel Navrátil.

Like many professors of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, he was a member of the Belyayev circle, a creative group of musicians led by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, which certainly affected his compositional work.

He made piano transcriptions for a number of works by Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Glazunov and Rimsky-Korsakov including Capriccio Espagnol and the ballet Raymonda, as well as orchestral works by Alexander Scriabin.