A. Siloti, a Piano Player and Music Teacher: Emigration from Russia and Peculiarities of Creative Activity in the USA (1921 to 1945)

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to reveal three key vectors of activity of A. Siloti as an outstanding representative of the Russian emigre community during his residing in emigration in the USA. These are concert, teaching and editorial activities. A. Siloti belonged to the first, so-called post-October wave of emigration when arrived in the USA in 1921. The main reasons of his emigration were dangerous problems with Bolshevik`s power. He emigrated firstly to Finland, then were European counties, which were famous for Russian emigrants. After three years of wandering, which were marked by A. Siloti`s only concert activities he, at least, began his creative way in USA. So, this article specifies the contribution A. Siloti made both to the cultural environment of the USA at the beginning of the twentieth century, and to the performing and teaching activities of musicians of the first wave of emigration. The relevance of study is due to insufficient research on the activities of A. Siloti in emigration, and especially during his activities at the Juilliard music school. In this educational institution A. Siloti has begun working in 1925. Therefore, the first official information about his activities appeared only in connection with teaching activities at Juilliard. He cooperated with such famous concert collectives as New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphonic Orchestra in Sent-Louis, in Philadelphia and so on. That`s way, in this article were classified principles of A. Siloti`s pianism, which influenced on his pedagogical style. It is known from a small number of retained posters that some revisions were included in A. Siloti's concert programs, however they have not been considered as part of performing and interpretive analysis. According to analyze of A. Siloti`s concert posters and memoirs of his colleagues and students, the most part of his repertoire consist of his own editions. So, for making full picture of his emigration activities in this research is presented a detailed analysis of his editorial style on the such examples as Fantasia c-moll by J. S. Bach. Description of reasons for emigration, interpretive analysis of concert activities, as well as determination of the peculiarities of A. Siloti's teaching style in emigration and introduction of unpublished revisions of A. Siloti into scientific circulation provide for the relevance of research carried out in the framework of this article.