COMPOSER
ISRAEL FINKELSHTEIN
Early Life: Warsaw and Kyiv (1909–1924)
Israel Finkelshtein was born in Warsaw in 1909, at a time when the city was still part of the Russian Empire and inside the Pale of Settlement, the area Jews were legally restricted to living in. It was a world of constant limitations, but also of dense Jewish life and culture.
When World War I broke out in 1914, the family moved to Kyiv, where his father found work in a pharmacy. A family tale says that little Izya—that was Israel’s nickname—would stand outside the house of Vladimir Horowitz, young and already a prodigy pianist, listening to him practice. After finishing, Horowitz would step onto the balcony and bow to the children gathered below, a moment that may have set Izya’s life in the direction of music.
In 1925, when Izya was 16, the family moved again, this time to Petrograd (St. Petersburg). His mother, determined and practical, managed to get him a special mid-year audition with Alexander Glazunov, the director of the Conservatory and one of the most important composers in Russia. Glazunov was so impressed that he wrote personally to the Minister of Culture, asking for permission to enroll the young man despite the rules. Permission was granted.
Studies and Formation: Petrograd and the Conservatory (1924–1939)
Israel graduated from the conservatory as a pianist in 1930. He studied piano with Samariy Savshinsky, an influential teacher and theorist. After graduation, he married Leah (Liza) Polyakova. He briefly tried to live a sensible life: he studied mathematics at the university and even taught it for a short period at a military academy. But he quickly understood that this practical career was slowly killing him, and he returned to music, the only place he felt alive.
Their first child, a daughter named Rita, was born in 1934. The same year, he entered the Conservatory again, this time as a composition student under Mikhail Gnessin, a direct artistic descendant of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Israel’s early works were well received; his Violin Concerto was performed in major cities such as Moscow, Kyiv, and Leningrad. In 1938, he successfully graduated from the conservatory for the second time. Dmitri Shostakovich praised the piece and, in 1939, invited Israel to become his assistant.
War Years and Shostakovich: Minsk, Leningrad, and Tashkent (1939–1944)
That same year, Israel was offered an incredibly prestigious position: to head the composition department at the Minsk Conservatory. There he met a young student named Moisey (Mieczysław) Weinberg, who would become a lifelong friend. It was Israel who eventually introduced Weinberg to Shostakovich, forming one of the most important creative friendships of the 20th century.
But 1939 was also the year of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, when Nazi Germany and the USSR briefly cooperated. In Minsk, Israel found himself living in a hotel suddenly full of Nazi officers. He understood German, and their conversations terrified him. He declined the prestigious position and returned to Leningrad. Shostakovich assured him: stay, and you will always have work with me.
That decision very likely saved his life.
In the winter of 1941, his second child, a son named Emil, was born. A few months later, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Belarus, the very place he had nearly moved to, was the first to be hit. Over 90% of the Jews there were murdered, including almost all of his wife’s extended family.
That autumn, Israel, Leah, their children, and the Conservatory staff were evacuated to Tashkent. The letters Shostakovich and Weinberg sent him there are still preserved. Tashkent became a refuge for many Soviet artists, and Israel found himself among writers, actors, and musicians, including Solomon Mikhoels, the head of the Moscow Jewish Theater and chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.
In 1944, the family returned to Leningrad. Israel resumed teaching composition and orchestration at the Conservatory, devoting himself to nurturing a new generation of composers and conductors.
Postwar Life: Teaching, Repression, and Return (1944–1971)
Then came the early 1950s, Stalin’s campaign against "Rootless Cosmopolitans", a thinly disguised antisemitic purge. Finkelstein was dismissed from the Conservatory. In a dark twist of the era, this counted as luck: his friend Weinberg was arrested, and Solomon Mikhoels had been assassinated by the regime in 1948.
After Stalin’s death in 1953, Israel was reinstated. He returned to teaching, writing, composing, editing textbooks, and shaping curriculum. In 1967, he defended his dissertation, "Orchestration as a Factor in Musical Form," becoming a recognized scholarly voice. His students later became some of the best-known Soviet composers: Andrey Petrov, Boris Tishchenko, Sergey Slonimsky, among others.
Late Years: Exclusion and Legacy (1971–1987)
In the early 1970s, Jews were finally allowed to emigrate. His daughter Rita and her family left for Israel in 1971. As often happened, this gave the authorities an excuse: in 1972, Israel was once again dismissed from the Conservatory, essentially punished for having a daughter who had emigrated. Authoritative Soviet composers such as Shostakovich and Sviridov stood up for him, but it was an unsuccessful attempt.
He would never see Rita again. The Iron Curtain made reunions impossible.
After his dismissal, Israel kept working: composing, participating in the Leningrad Union of Composers. For several years, he led a seminar for composers from multiple republics of the USSR. This was his way of staying alive, passing on knowledge and helping young musicians find their voices.
He passed away in 1987, leaving behind students who adored him, compositions still waiting to be rediscovered, and a life marked by talent and impossible historical circumstances—a life constantly shaped by borders, politics, and the stubborn insistence on creating art anyway.
© 2026 Polina Fradkina