Serge Koussevitzky

Serge Koussevitzky was born in Vyshny Volochyok, Tver Governorate, in July 1874, into a Jewish family of musicians. He studied double bass at the Moscow Conservatory and joined the Bolshoi orchestra as principal bass in 1894, building a parallel career as a virtuoso soloist on what had until then been considered an unsuitable solo instrument. His marriage to the heiress Natalia Ushkov in 1905 made possible the next phase of his career: he founded a publishing house (Édition Russe de Musique, which published Stravinsky and Scriabin) and a touring orchestra that gave concerts along the Volga.

He emigrated in 1920, settled in Paris in 1921, and founded the Concerts Koussevitzky — the major Paris commissioning programme of the inter-war years, responsible for premieres of Ravel’s *Boléro*, Honegger’s *Pacific 231*, Prokofiev’s *Symphony No. 2*, and many others. In 1924 he was appointed music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he remained for twenty-five years and from which he reshaped American orchestral culture — commissioning new works (Copland’s *Appalachian Spring*, Bartók’s *Concerto for Orchestra*, Britten’s *Peter Grimes*), expanding the Tanglewood summer programme, and founding the Berkshire Music Center.

Koussevitzky died in Boston in June 1951 and was buried near Tanglewood. The Koussevitzky Music Foundation, founded after his death, continued his commissioning programme. Music Preserved’s archive includes a range of his work with the Boston Symphony.