BLUMENFELD, FELIX MIKHAYLOVICH

BLUMENFELD, FELIX MIKHAYLOVICH (1863–1931), conductor, pianist, teacher, and composer. Born in Kovalovka, Kherson, Blumenfeld studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Stein (piano) and Rimsky-Korsakov (composition). After his graduation in 1885 he taught piano and was appointed professor in 1897. Blumenfeld conducted at the Imperial Opera, 1898–1912, gave the first performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's Servilia (1902) and of The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (1907), and conducted the Russian seasons in Paris in 1908 (including Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov). After the Revolution, he became director of the Kiev Conservatory, and in 1922 joined the Moscow Conservatory as a piano teacher. He composed piano music, chamber music, and songs. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: "F.M. Blumenfel'da," in: Sovetskaya muzyka, 4 (1963), 74–6; L. Barenboim, Fortepianno-pedagogicheskie prinzipy F.M. Blunefel'da (1964). (Marina Rizarev (2nd ed.)