Léon Theremin

**Léon Theremin** (born **Lev Sergeyevich Termen**, ) (August 15, 1896 – November 3, 1993) was a Russian inventor. He is most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments.

Léon Theremin was born in Saint Petersburg and his family had French ancestry.

## Biography
### Early inventions
He invented the theremin (also called the *thereminvox*) in 1919, in the middle of the Russian Civil War. Theremin also invented the first electronic burglar alarm, which he called a "radio watchman".

### Move to the United States
Theremin moved to the United States, arriving December 30, 1927 with his first wife, Katia Constantinova. He performed on the theremin with the New York Philharmonic in 1928. He patented his invention in the United States in 1928 and granted commercial production rights to RCA. Theremin set up a laboratory in New York in the 1930s, where he developed the Theremin and experimented with other electronic musical instruments and other inventions.

Theremin was interested in a role for the Theremin in dance music. He developed performance locations that could automatically react to dancers' movements with varied patterns of sound and light. He worked with the American Negro Ballet. After the Soviet consulate had apparently demanded he divorce Katia, the inventor fell in love with and married the young prima ballerina Lavinia Williams.

Theremin was put to work in a secret research and development laboratories in the Soviet Gulag labor camp system. Theremin created the "Buran" eavesdropping system which recorded conversations in French and American embassies by measuring the window glass vibrations using a low power infrared beam from a distance. Lavrentiy Beria, head of the KGB then used Buran to spy on US, British and French embassies.

### Later life
After his release from the labor camp in 1947z, Theremin volunteered to remain working with the KGB until 1966. for 10 years where he taught and built Theremins, electronic cellos and some Terpsitones. closed his laboratory where he was reunited with Clara Rockmore who performed a number of concerts at this time. He also made a demonstration concert at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in early 1993

## Documentary movie
Léon Theremin is the subject of the documentary movie, *Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey*, written, directed, and produced by Steven M. Martin.  The documentary was a winner at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994. The movie features legendary thereminists Clara Rockmore and Lydia Kavina as well as electronic instrument pioneer Robert Moog, Nicolas Slonimsky, The Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson, and Theremin himself.

## Notes
## References 
* linked from LMJ6
* 
* copied here
* 

## Other websites 
* Theremin Centre, Moscow, holds Lev Sergeivitch Termen archives (Russian only)
*Natalia Theremin's interview to magazine AURA-Z
* Lev Sergeivitch Termen: The Inventor of the theremin
* An Introduction to Leon Theremin 
* Online bibliography about both the man and the instrument
* An encounter with Léon Theremin
* Inventor of the Week Archive - LEON THEREMIN (1896-1993)
*  from The History Channel
* Moog re LT's work on television, bugging 
* ARTMargins  by Natascha Drubek-Meyer, "Between “Bad Things” and Good Vibrations: Leon Theremin and his T-Vox" - long article with citations