Maxim Shostakovich

Biography

Maxim Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (Russian: Макси́м Дми́триевич Шостако́вич; born 10 May 1938 in Leningrad) is a Soviet, Russian and American conductor and pianist. He is the second child of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich and Nina Varzar. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1978). Since 1975, he has conducted and popularised many of his father's lesser-known works. He was educated at the Moscow and Leningrad Conservatories where he studied with Igor Markevitch and Otto-Werner Mueller before becoming principal conductor of the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. During his tenure as principal conductor, he conducted the premiere of his father's Fifteenth Symphony on 8 January 1972. On 12 April 1981, he defected to West Germany, and then later settled in the United States. After spells conducting t...