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, where he entered the world of Shanghai's academia and, together with other Jewish  musicians, who had fled the Russian pogroms and revolution, trained a number of young Chinese musicians in classical music, who in turn became leading musicians in contemporary 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. Avshalomov made his main livelihood at bookstores and libraries. He was the head librarian of the Shanghai Municipal Library for 15 years from 1928 to 1943. He conducted the Shanghai Municipal  Orchestra from 1943 to 1946. In 1947, he moved to the United States, where he already had spent three years in the mid-1920s. Family. While living in San Francisco, he married a fellow Russian émigré in San Francisco. In 1919, his son, Jacob Avshalomov was born, who became a composer and conductor, too. Death. He died in New York City on April 16, 1965.