Boris Koutzen

Boris Koutzen (1 April 1901 – 10 December 1966) was a Russian-American violinist composer and music educator.

Biography Koutzen was born in Uman, Southern Russia. He began composing at the age of six and studied violin with his father. In 1918 his family moved to Moscow, where Boris entered the Moscow Conservatory to study violin with Lev Tseitlin, and composition with Reinhold Glière. That same year, he won the national competition for the position of first violin in the State Opera House Orchestra, and later joined the Moscow Symphony Orchestra under Serge Koussevitzky.

In the fall of 1923 Koutzen came to the United States and became a member of the first violin section of the Philadelphia orchestra under Leopold Stokowski. From 1937 until 1945 he was a member of the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini. Mr. Koutzen was head of the violin department of the Philadelphia Conservatory from 1925-1962. In 1944 he joined the faculty of Vassar College, where he taught violin and conducted the Vassar orchestra until 1966.

He died after suffering a heart attack while conducting a dress rehearsal, only a few months after retiring his teaching post at Vassar. He was survived by his family of musicians: his wife Inez, a pianist, his son George, cellist and administrator of the Little Orchestra Society, and his daughter Nadia, a concert violinist.

Selected works Stage You Never Know, Comic Opera in 1 act (1960)

Orchestral Valley Forge (1931), which won a Juilliard School of Music award in 1943 Sonatina for 2 pianos (1944)

Choral An Invocation for women's voices and orchestra (or piano) (1958); words by John Addington Symonds Concerto for chorus and orchestra The Fatal Oath, one-act opera