Aaron Avshalomov

Aaron Avshalomov (; 11 November 1894 – 16 April 1965) was a Russian-born Jewish composer. His work included several ballets, two operas, a violin concerto, four symphonies and a flute concerto.

Early life Born into a Mountain Jewish family in Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, Russia, Avshalomov was sent for medical studies to Zürich. After the October Revolution in 1917, which made further studies in Europe impossible, his family sent him to the United States.

Career Less than a year later, he chose to move to China, Between 1918 and 1947, he worked to create a synthesis of Chinese musical elements and Western techniques of orchestral composition. Among the first works of this type that he created was the opera Kuan Yin, which premiered in Peking in 1925. In the spring of 1935, at the invitation of He Luting, he orchestrated the newly composed March of the Volunteers by Nie Er for the film Children of Troubled Times (1935), making him the first to orchestrate what would become the national anthem of the People's Republic of China.

Avshalomov made his main livelihood at bookstores and libraries. He was the head librarian of the Public Library, Shanghai Municipal Council for 15 years from 1928 until 1943 when the Municipal Council was dissolved.

In 1947, he moved to the United States, where he already had spent three years in the mid-1920s. Flute Concerto Violin Concerto Symphony No. 1 Symphony No. 2 (1949, commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky, premiered by the Cincinnati Sym, conducted by Thor Johnson) Symphony No. 3 (1953, "To the Memory of Serge and Natalie Koussevitzky") Dream of Wei Lin (1949)

Death He died in New York City on April 16, 1965.