Nikolai Lopatnikoff collection, 1916-1979

Biographical Note

Date	Event
1903, Mar. 16	Nikolai [Nikolaĭ] Lvovich Lopatnikoff is born in Reval, Russia (now Tallinn, Estonia), the youngest of four children of Leo Lopatnikoff and Ida Feitelberg.
1907 (circa)	The Lopatnikoff family moves to St. Petersburg, Russia, where Nikolai begins his musical studies in piano and theory at the Conservatory.
1917 Nov.	The family moves to Helsinki, Finland, following the Russian Revolution. Nikolai attends high school there, and continues his theory studies with Erik Furuhjelm.
1920	The family moves to Heidelberg, Germany, where Nikolai continues his musical studies with Hermann Grabner.
1921	Begins private studies in composition with Ernst Toch and Willy Rehberg in Mannheim, Germany.
1923, May 16	Enrolls at the Badische Technische Hochschüle in Karlsruhe, Germany, to begin civil engineering studies.
1925, Nov. 3	Première of Concerto no. 1 for piano and orchestra in Cologne, Germany, with Hans Bruch as soloist.
1926	Marries Eleanore Lashchinsky in Strasbourg, France. The couple settles in Karlsruhe.
1927, June 28	Graduates from the Badische Technische Hochschüle; however, after his first compositions meet with critical acclaim, he decides to concentrate on a career in music. He begins concertizing throughout Europe as a pianist.
1927	Meets Serge Koussevitzky through Aaron Copland at a music festival in Baden-Baden, Germany, at which the Scherzo and Toccata for mechanical piano is performed. Koussevitzky commissions an arrangement of the Scherzo to be performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra the following year.
1928	Moves to Berlin.
1929, Jan. 9	Première of Symphony no. 1 in Karlsruhe. Later this year Lopatnikoff is awarded the Belaïeff Prize in Paris for his String Quartet no. 2. Begins contributing articles to Modern Music magazine, which continues until 1937.
1930	Awarded Reichs-Rundfunk Gesellschaft prize for Symphony no. 1. The work is included in the Philadelphia Orchestra's concert tour repertoire.
1931-1932	Composition of the opera Danton, to be premiered simultaneously in Cologne and Zürich in 1933, but cancelled due to the ascent to power of the Nazi regime.
1936	Moves to London. Begins teaching privately and arranging music for the BBC.
1939	Moves to the United States and settles in New York.
1943	Revised version of Opus Sinfonicum (1942; first version, 1933) wins first prize at this year's Cleveland Orchestra competition.
1944	Becomes an American citizen. Awarded a Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation commission for his Concertino. Holds teaching positions at the Hartt College of Music in Hartford, Connecticut, and at the Westchester Conservatory in White Plains, New York.
1945, July 22	Eleanore Lashchinsky Lopatnikoff dies.
1945 Sept.	Accepts a teaching position on the music faculty of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, later Carnegie-Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1948	Spends the summer at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hamp-shire, the first of a ten-year summer residence.
1950	Meets the American poet Sara Henderson Hay at the MacDowell Colony. They are married the following year on January 27 in New York.
1963	Elected to membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
1969	Retires from his professorship at the Carnegie Institute of Technology.
1976, Mar. 26	Première of last completed work, Melting-Pot, commissioned by the Indianapolis Ballet, in Indianapolis.
1976, Oct. 7	Dies from congestive heart failure at his home in Pittsburgh.