Isidor Arkadievich Zak (* 14 February 1909, Odesa - † 16 August 1998, Novosibirsk) - Ukrainian and Russian conductor, Honoured Artist of the RSFSR in 1945, Stalin Prize winner in 1948, People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1959, Order of Lenin in 1967, People's Artist of the USSR in 1983.
Biography.
From the age of five, he studied music with Berta Reingbald. He graduated from the Odesa Conservatory, and in 1928, from the conducting department of the Leningrad Conservatory under Nikolai Malko.
He worked in musical theatres in Vladivostok, Gorky, Dnipro, Kuibyshev, Leningrad, and Khabarovsk.
In 1944-1949, he worked as the chief conductor of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre.
On 12 May 1945, he conducted the premiere of Glinka's opera Life for the Tsar (Ivan Susanin).
At the same time, he staged:
"Bizet's Carmen,
"Aida and Rigoletto by Verdi,
"The Sevastopolites" by M. Koval,
"Dubrovsky" by E. Nadezhda,
"The Barber of Seville by Rossini,
"The Queen of Spades by P. Tchaikovsky,
ballet "Doctor Oybolit" by I. V. Morozov.
In 1949-1951, he headed the Lviv Opera House, in 1951-1952 - the Kharkiv Opera House, and in 1952-1955 - the Alma-Ata Opera House.
He made a great contribution to the development of opera in Chelyabinsk as one of the founders and the first chief conductor of the Chelyabinsk Opera and Ballet Theatre in 1955-1968.
In 1968, he returned to Novosibirsk, and in 1986 he again led the orchestra of the Opera and Ballet Theatre, working until 1992.
He took part in productions:
"Brusilovsky's Dudarai in Almaty,
"Rachmaninoff's The Miserly Knight,
"Smetana's Dalibor in Lviv,
"Smetana's Brandenburgers in Bohemia in Chelyabinsk,
"The Sorceress by Tchaikovsky.
At the same time, he worked as a professor at the Novosibirsk Conservatory, where he taught until the end of his life.
Since 2001, Chelyabinsk has hosted the Isidor Zak International Conductors' Festival.
In 2009, the Novosibirsk City Council passed a resolution to erect a memorial plaque in his honour.
