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Jacob AvshalomovAmerican composer and conductor
Date of Birth: 28.03.1919
Country:  USA |
Content:
Biography of Jacob Avshalomov
Jacob Avshalomov, an American composer and conductor, was born on March 28, 1919, in Tsingtao, China. His birth name was Yakov Aronovich Avshalumov. His father, Aaron Avshalomov, was a Chinese-American composer who was known for his unique presentation of Eastern musical material in Western forms. Jacob's mother was from San Francisco.
Early Life and Education
From a young age, Jacob's father provided him with musical education. At the age of eight, Jacob moved with his parents from China to Portland, where they stayed with Jacques Gershkovitch, a Russian musician and conductor who was the first director of the Portland Junior Symphony. Jacob's father had befriended Gershkovitch in the East when Jacob was three years old. The Avshalomov family later returned to China due to a lack of permanent residency visas.
Until the age of fifteen, Jacob attended British and American schools, and then spent four years working in factories in Tientsin, Shanghai, and Beijing. He was an avid athlete and even won the North China Diving Championship. In 1937, he assisted his father with ballet productions in Shanghai and worked on orchestrations.
World War II and Musical Career
After the Japanese invasion of China, Avshalomov joined the British Volunteer Corps but eventually returned to the United States with his mother in December 1937. He spent a year in Los Angeles, studying under Ernst Toch, and then attended Reed College in Portland from 1939 to 1941, where he played in the youth orchestra under the guidance of Gershkovitch. He later spent two years at the Eastman School of Music, studying composition and orchestration with Bernard Rogers.
During World War II, Avshalomov lived in London and conducted performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's "St John Passion." After the war, he received a Ditson Fellowship and joined the faculty of Columbia University, where he taught from 1946 to 1954. He conducted the American premiere of Anton Bruckner's "Mass No. 1" and Michael Tippett's "A Child of Our Time" during his time at Columbia.
Later Career
From 1968 to 1974, Avshalomov served on the National Humanities Council, and from 1977 to 1979, he was a member of the National Endowment for the Arts. After Gershkovitch's death in 1953, the Portland Junior Symphony, now known as the Portland Youth Philharmonic, was led by guest conductors, and Avshalomov was one of them.
In 1954, he became the orchestra's second conductor, touring internationally and leading multiple recordings. Under Avshalomov's direction, the orchestra embarked on its first international tour in 1970. In 1984, the orchestra celebrated its 60th anniversary and Avshalomov's 30th year as conductor. He retired in 1995 after conducting approximately 640 concerts and leading 10,000 auditions.
Jacob Avshalomov composed several symphonic works, including the cantata "How Long Oh Lord," which was recorded by Composers Recordings, Inc. in the late 1960s alongside two of his father's works. Other compositions recorded by Avshalomov on the same label include "Phases of the Great Land," "Inscriptions at the City of Brass," "The Taking of T'ung Kuan," and "Prophesy." In 1959, he wrote the symphony "The Oregon" in honor of the state's 100-year anniversary.
