Konstantin Saradzhev

Konstantin Saradzhev (also Constantin Saradgeff, born Saradzhian; 8 October 1877 – 22 July 1954) was an Armenian conductor and violinist.

He was an advocate of new Russian music, and conducted a number of premieres of works by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Modest Mussorgsky, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Nikolai Myaskovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Aram Khachaturian.

[1] He attended the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied violin under Jan Hřímalý and theory under Sergei Taneyev,[2] graduating in 1898.

[2] On 8 October 1913 he conducted the first performance of Mussorgsky's much-delayed and still incomplete comic opera The Fair at Sorochyntsi at the Free Theatre in Moscow.

[3] In 1909 Derzhanovsky, his wife Elena Koposova-Derzhanovskaya and Saradzhev organized "Evenings of Modern Music" in Moscow.

He was professor of conducting at Moscow Conservatory 1922-35, where his notable students included Boris Khaikin[8] and Lev Oborin.

[9] Saradzhev conducted the first Soviet performance of Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto (22 March 1925, Orchestra of the Theatre of the Revolution; soloist Samuil Feinberg).

Konstantin and Zoya Saradzhev are buried at Yerevan's Central Cemetery,[20] his memorial is a unique work of Art made of basalt.

Konstantin Saradzhev was made a Hero of Labour in 1921 and a People's Artist of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1945.