Fabien Sevitzky (September 29, 1891 in

Vyshny Volochyok Vyshny VolochyokThe more-regular spelling Vyshny Volochok ( rus, Вы́шний Волочо́к)—with instead of after an unpaired " hush consonant"—is seen but is not official; the two spellings are pronounced the same in Russian. ( rus, ...

– February 3, 1967 in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

) was a Russian-born American conductor. He was the nephew of renowned double-bass virtuoso and longtime Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor Serge Koussevitzky. Sevitzky became music director of the

Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO) is an American orchestra based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The largest performing arts organization in Indiana, the orchestra is based at the Hilbert Circle Theatre in downtown Indianapolis on Monument Ci ...

in 1937 after he first conducted it in winter 1936, and remained in the position until 1955. He led the orchestra in a series of recordings for RCA Victor from 1941 to 1946 & for Capitol Records up to 1953, which were issued on 78-rpm and 33-1/3-rpm discs. The orchestra was recorded in the Murat Theatre. Among the more unusual recordings were of

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

's first symphony (recorded March 19, 1946) and ''

Manfred ''Manfred: A dramatic poem'' is a closet drama written in 1816–1817 by Lord Byron. It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of a Gothic fiction. Byr ...

'' (recorded January 27, 1942). He married harpist Mary Spaulding in 1959, and the couple subsequently moved to Miami to take up faculty positions at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

while his wife also gave private harp lessons. He guest-conducted the University's orchestra soon after his arrival, and became its permanent conductor in 1963. He championed the music of William Grant Still, from whom he commissioned works including ''Threnody: In Memory of Jan Sibelius'', and conducted the premiere of Still's opera ''Highway 1, U.S.A.'' in 1960. He was music director of the Greater Miami Philharmonic Orchestra from 1956 to 1962, and died suddenly in 1967. His wife, who later became Mary Spaulding Portanova, survived him.

References

External links

Frost School of Music history page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sevitsky, Fabien 1890s births 1967 deaths People from Vyshny Volochyok American male conductors (music) American people of Russian-Jewish descent Russian Jews 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American male musicians Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States