Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich (born September 12 [September 25, New Style], 1906, St. Petersburg, Russia—died August 9, 1975, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) was a Russian composer, renowned particularly for his 15 symphonies, numerous chamber works, and concerti, many of them written under the pressures of government-imposed standards of Soviet art. Shostakovich was the son of an engineer. He entered the Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) Conservatory in 1919, where he studied piano with Leonid Nikolayev until 1923 and composition...