Ukrainian and Russian composer, music critic, teacher. People's Artist of the USSR (1954). Laureate of the State Prize of the USSR (1941, 1946, 1952), State Prize of Russia (1966). Professor of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (1940).
Biography.
Born in the family of a painter and a pianist. He spent his childhood and adolescence in Hlukhiv, where he studied at the gymnasium, played the piano and cello, and had a talent for drawing. The Shaporin family's circle of friends included M. Zankovetska, M. Sadovskyi, and M. Lysenko.In 1906-1908, he studied at the Faculty of History and Philology of Kyiv University, taking composition lessons from H. Liubomyrskyi. During this period, he wrote his first musical compositions and performed them for M. Lysenko.
He graduated from the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg University in 1912.
During the First World War, he served in the Finnish Life Guards Regiment, and after demobilization in 1918, he graduated from the Petrograd Conservatory with a degree in composition. While studying at the conservatory, he received a scholarship from the famous philanthropist M. Tereshchenko.
1919-1920, 1922-1928 - Head of the Music Department and conductor of the Bolshoi Drama Theater.
1921-1922 - conductor of the Petrozavodsk Drama Theater (Karelia).
1928-1934 - conductor of the Drama Theater in Leningrad.
While working at the VDT, he met the artists Mstislav Dobuzhynsky and Alexander Benois, and the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky. For many years he was friends with Alexei Tolstoy. His circle of friends included K. Fedin, K. Petrov-Vodkin, and P. Shchogolev.
1925-1930 - Head of the Leningrad branch of the Association of Contemporary Music, head of the Triton music publishing house.
1932-1936 - deputy chairman of the Leningrad branch of the USSR Composers' Union.
1939-1948 - member of the organizing committee of the USSR Composers' Union.
1952-1966 - Secretary of the Union of Composers of the USSR.
Since 1933, he worked as a music critic. His creative work includes more than 130 publications about musicians.
Since 1939 he was a teacher, and since 1940 he was a professor of composition at the Moscow Conservatory. His class included: Rodion Shchedrin, Yevgeny Svetlanov, and Nikolai Sidelnikov.
During the Second World War, he was evacuated to Tbilisi, where he led the ensemble of the Transcaucasian Military District, wrote songs for it, and performed with the ensemble in military units and hospitals.
He has been a member of the Soviet Committee for the Defense of Peace since 1955.
People's Artist of the USSR since 1954.
Three times winner of the USSR State Prize (1941, 1946, 1952).
In Glukhov and Moscow there are music schools named after Yuri Shaporin (at the Moscow State Institute of Music named after A. Schnittke).
Creative work.
Since his youth, he has written romances, music for theater productions, and piano sonatas.
Historical and epic themes became the leading theme in the composer's work. He reflected the turning points of history in the opera "The Decembrists" (1953), in the oratorios "The Tale of the Battle for the Russian Land" (1943-1944) and "How Long Should the Kite Circle?" (based on poems by A. Blok, K. Simonov, M. Isakovsky, 1945-1962), in the symphony "The Kite" (1945-1962). ), in the symphony-oratorio "On the Field of Kulikov" (text - Oleksandr Blok, 1937-1938) and in the "Symphony with Chorus" (1932), dedicated to the composer's brothers who died in the Civil War, as well as in the music for the films "Minin and Pozharsky", "Suvorov", "Kutuzov".
In total, he composed music for 29 films.
He revealed his lyrical talent in writing romances (more than 50). He found musical intonations for them in the poetry of A. Blok, A. Pushkin, F. Tyutchev, and M. Lermontov,
А. Fet, Taras Shevchenko.
He is the author of works for orchestra: "Flea" (a comic suite in 6 parts, 1928); Symphony in C-moll (in 4 parts, 1932-1933), as well as works for individual instruments: piano and cello (sonatas, pieces, ballads).
