Aleksandr Gavrilovich Erofeev (* 2 November (14 November) 1884, Nizhny Novgorod - † 25 July 1969, Gorky) was a Ukrainian and Russian conductor, teacher, theatre and public figure. He was the founder of the Poltava Opera Theatre and an Honoured Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1935). Honoured Artist of the RSFSR.
Biography
O. Yerofeev was born in Nizhny Novgorod on 2 November 1884 in a simple, poor family of a typist and a housewife. At the age of eight, he joined the local bishop's choir. Subsequently, he entered the Nizhny Novgorod Music School, studying French horn, graduating in 1900. After graduation, he entered the Moscow Conservatoire, studying trombone. He combined his studies with work in orchestral groups in Moscow, in particular, in 1902-1903 - in the opera orchestra of Sergei Zimin.
After graduating from the conservatoire in 1904, he went to work in Kazan: he taught music theory at the music school and played in the local opera orchestra.
From 1906 to 1911, he toured the cities of Russia (Rostov, Baku, Kazan, Astrakhan). In 1911, he spent the winter tour in Kharkiv. There he was invited to tour with the symphony orchestra of the Poltava Music School. In 1912, the Poltava stage of his biography began. At first, he taught trombone and worked as a member of the symphony orchestra at the Poltava Music School. In 1916, he became the conductor of the symphony orchestra of the Poltava branch of the Imperial Russian Musical Society.
After the October Revolution, his long-held dream of his student days to create an opera house was activated. Poltava had all the conditions for this. He had a well-trained symphony orchestra, a sufficient number of singers, the support of local artists, and creative connections with leading Ukrainian opera companies. His closest associates in the creation of the Poltava Opera were his wife V. Starostynetska, director S. Korobov, and choreographer Y. Yakovleva. In the summer of 1919, his dream came true. Poltava got its own opera house.
1920-1925 - conductor of the Opera Labour Collective of the Poltava Theatre.
1918-1928 - conductor of a travelling opera in Poltava.
1928-1929 - conductor of the opera in Vinnytsia.
1932-1938 - Chief Conductor of the Donetsk (Luhansk) Opera.
1938-1954 - works as a conductor of the Gorky Opera and Ballet Theatre[ru]. On the stage of this theatre, he first staged S. Hulak-Artemovsky's Cossack Beyond the Danube (1940) and Mykola Lysenko's Natalka Poltavka (1942).
For many years, together with his wife Vasylyna Tryfonivna, he maintained friendly relations with the famous singer I. Kozlovsky, which Ivan Semenovych mentioned in his articles. In 1964, H. S. Kuznetsova wrote: "Kozlovsky still remembers A.G. Erofeev with great gratitude... Often Alexander Gavrilovich Erofeev and his wife, Vasilisa Trifonovna, call from Gorky to the People's Artist's apartment."
Oleksandr Havrylovych died in Gorky on 25 July 1969
