Kalafati, Vasily (1869‒1942)

   Vasily Kalafati was born to a Greek merchant family in Yevpatoriya, Crimea, in 1869. Though well known to Russian-speaking musicologists, he is virtually unknown to the rest of the world. And yet, Vasily Kalafati was not only a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, but was himself a teacher of composition at the St Petersburg Conservatory, from 1901 to 1929 (from 1912 as a Professor of Composition), with Boris Asafyev, Heino Eller, Khristofor Kushnaryov, Vladimir Shcherbachyov, Igor Stravinsky, Anoushavan Ter-Gevondyan, and Maria Yudina numbering among his students. He was part of the Belyayev Circle, was published by Edition M. P. Belaieff (based in Liepzig), was one of the recipients of the Glinka Prize, set up by Belyayev in 1884, which brought with it a monetary award of 3000 roubles, as well as a recipient of the Belyayev Prize. In 1928, he received the second prize at the International Schubert Competition for his symphonic poem Légende, composed specifically for the occasion.
   Kalafati also published the dictionary Sputnik muzykanta [The Musician’s Companion, St Petersburg, 1911], and produced four-hand piano arrangements of Scriabin’s Second Symphony and various works by Lyadov. His Symphony in A minor (1899) was often performed at the Russian Symphony Concerts, and he regularly attended Belyayev’s famous ‘Friday evenings’. His last work, Zvezdy Kremlya [The Kremlin Stars], was composed in 1941, and was performed again in 2010, along with several others of his works, at the 19^th International Arts Festival in St Petersburg, entitled ‘War and Peace’. Kalafati died of starvation during the siege of Leningrad, in 1942.

Louisa Tsougaraki

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