Altschuler, Modest

Altschuler, Modest, Russian-American conductor; b. Mogilev, Feb. 15, 1873; d. Los Angeles, Sept. 12, 1963. He studied cello at the Warsaw Cons., and then was a student of Arensky and Taneyev (composition) and Safonov (piano and conducting) at the Moscow Cons, (graduated, 1890). In 1903 he went to N.Y., where he was founder-conductor of the Russian Sym. Soc. (1904–16). Altschuler conducted the premiere of Scriab–in's Le poème de Vextase (N.Y., Dec. 10, 1908), and the U.S. premiere of his Prométhée, le poème du feu (N.Y., March 20, 1915). He also conducted the U.S. premieres of works by Rachmaninoff, Liadov, Ippolitov-Ivanov, and Vasilenko.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire