Isaac Schwartz

Who was Isaac Schwartz?

Isaac Iosifovich Schwartz, also known as Isaak Shvarts, was a Soviet composer.

Schwartz was born in Romny in the Ukrainian SSR in 1923. His family moved to Leningrad in 1930, where he learned to play the piano. He gave his first concert in 1935 with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra.

Schwartz's father was professor of archeology at the Leningrad State University: he was arrested in 1936 and executed two years later as part of the Great Purge. Schwartz's family was exiled to Kyrgyzstan in 1937, and Schwartz gave private music lessons in Frunze as well as occasionally accompanying the silent films at the cinema with live music.

During the Second World War, Schwartz directed one of the sections of the Red Army Choir. During that time, he met Mariya Dmitriyevna, the sister of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who introduced him to her brother. Shostakovich helped Schwartz gain entry to the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in Leningrad, from whence he graduated with a diploma in composition in 1951. He joined the Union of Soviet Composers in 1955. Only years later did he discover that Shostakovich had paid for his education. When Shostakovich was dismissed from the Conservatory, Schwartz was asked to denounce Shostakovich, but he refused.