Igor Stravinsky — composer with roots in the Russian Empire
Igor Stravinsky was a Russian-born composer widely regarded as one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century. His three ballets for the Ballets Russes — The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913) — transformed Western music, and his subsequent decades of neoclassicism and serialism confirmed his dominance.
Tracing the roots — Lomonosov
Born in Lomonosov (Oranienbaum) near St. Petersburg in 1882 to operatic bass Fyodor Stravinsky, he was immersed in Russian musical life from birth. The Rite of Spring's Paris premiere in 1913 caused a riot — its savage rhythms and dissonant harmonies tearing up the rulebook of Western music. He spent the rest of his life in exile, carrying Russia within him.
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Lomonosov. At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.
A career defined by ambition
"I haven't understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it."