Jacques Gershkovitch

Who was Jacques Gershkovitch?

Jacques Gershkovitch was a Russian conductor and musician who became the first music director of the Portland Junior Symphony. Born to a musical family in Irkutsk, Gershkovitch was sent to Saint Petersburg in his late teens to study at the Imperial Conservatory, where he learned from respected Russian composers. In 1913 he graduated with the title of "laureate" and honors in flute and conducting, and was awarded the Schubert Scholarship for a year of study under German conductor Arthur Nikisch in Berlin. However, Gershkovitch's studies with Nikisch were shortened due to World War I. Gershkovitch returned to Irkutsk to enlist and by 1916 he had become head of the Imperial Russian Army's military symphony orchestra. He held this position through the revolution and following the war as concerts were often presented as benefits for orphans and the Red Cross.

Gershkovitch married in Irkutsk in 1918. There, he established a fine arts conservatory and symphony orchestra which continued under the Bolshevik regime. In 1921, he and his wife crossed the border in China to escape from Russia.