Vladimir Drozdoff

Vladimir Nikolaevich Drozdoff (May 25, 1882-March 10, 1960) was a Russian pianist, composer, and teacher. Born in Saratov, Russia, May 25, 1882 to Olga A. Balmasheva and Nikolai V. Drozdoff, and was the eldest brother of Anatoly N. Drozdoff, a noted teacher of music theory himself, and Valerian N. Drozdoff, a violinist. All three boys were students of their mother, who taught at the Saratov Music School (which in September 1912 became the Saratov Conservatory).

Vladimir Drozdoff was the uncontested winner of the Gold Medal and the coveted Rubinstein Prize as a student of Anna Essipova at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. After several European tours, during which the critics compared him with the two acknowledged masters, Reisenaur and Busoni, he returned to the St Petersburg Conservatory as a professor of piano under the directorship of Alexander Glazounov. In that capacity, he was a colleague of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakoff, Anatoly Lyadoff (a/k/a Liadov), Nikolai Tcherepnin, Leopold Auer, and Anna Essipova.

Vladimir Drozdoff met and married a fellow student from the Conservatory, Anna Schweiger. They had two children, Paul and Nathalie. Drozdoff and his wife fled Russia in 1920, living for the next three years in Istanbul (Constantinople) before relocating to the United States in 1923 under the sponsorship of the Red Cross.

Drozdoff made his American debut in 1926 with the Detroit Symphony under Ossip Gabrilovitch. A year later, he and Anna opened a piano studio in New York City, where he resided until his retirement in 1957. He appeared frequently on the New York concert stage, and at least once a year, he appeared in concert with his children Paul and Nathalie, who had by now achieved distinguished careers as musicians themselves.

Drozdoff was also a composer for voice and piano. His American publishers were John Markert & Co., Carl Fischer, Inc., and Omega Music Edition.