Nicolas Nabokov (April 17 [O.S. April 4] 1903 – 6 April 1978), American composer, writer, and cultural figure, was born in Russia. He became a US citizen in 1939. Nicolas Nabokov, a cousin of Vladimir Nabokov was born to a family of landed Russian gentry in the town of Lubcza near Minsk, and was educated by private tutors. In 1918, after his family fled to the Crimea, he began his musical education with Vladimir Rebikov. After living briefly in Germany he settled in Paris in 1923, where he studied at the Sorbonne. Nabokov's first major musical work was the ballet-oratorio Ode, for Serge Diaghilev's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, in 1928, followed by his Lyrical Symphony in 1931. In 1933 he moved to the United States as a lecturer in music for the Barnes Foundation. His ballet Union Pacific was composed in 1934. He taught music at Wells College, in New York, in 1936-41, then moved to St. John's College in Maryland. In 1945, worked for the U. S. Strategic Bombing Survey in Germany (W. H. Auden suggested that he join the Survey) and stayed to work as a civilian cultural advisor in occupied Germany. Back in the United States in 1947, he taught at the Peabody Conservatory, then, in 1950-51, served as music director at the American Academy in Rome. In 1951, he became Secretary General of the newly-formed Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) and remained in the job for more than fifteen years, organizing well-known music and cultural festivals. He composed an opera Rasputin's End (libretto by Stephen Spender) in 1958 and a ballet on Don Quixote in 1966. With the effective dissolution of the CCF in 1967, Nabokov found a series of teaching jobs at American universities, and in 1970, became resident composer at the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, where he remained until 1973. His opera Love's Labour's Lost (libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman) was composed in 1971 and performed in 1973. He was married four times and had three sons.
References
- Nabokov, Nicolas (1951). Old Friends and New Music (memoir). Boston: Little, Brown. OCLC 756321.
- Nabokov, Nicolas (1975). Bagázh : memoirs of a Russian cosmopolitan. New York: Atheneum. ISBN 0-689-10656-4.
- Nicolas Nabokov Papers, Biographical Sketch at the University of Texas. Retrieved on 2007-01-07.
- Wellens, Ian (2002). Music on the Frontline: Nicolas Nabokov's Struggle against Communism and Middlebrow Culture. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 0-7546-0635-X
