Alexander Tcherepnin

Also known as Also transliterated Aleksandr Cherepnin · Alexander Nikolayevich Tcherepnin

Alexander Tcherepnin was born in Saint Petersburg on 21 January 1899, the son of the composer Nikolai Tcherepnin. He settled in Paris with his family in 1921 and went on to tour widely as a pianist and composer. Between 1934 and 1937 he made several long visits to China. In 1934 he held a competition in Shanghai for piano music in a Chinese style and chaired its jury, which gave first prize to He Luting's The Shepherd Boy's Piccolo. He also taught composition and piano at the Shanghai conservatory as an honorary professor, and in 1935 founded publishing houses in Beiping and Tokyo to print the work of young Chinese and Japanese composers. He married the Chinese pianist Lee Hsien Ming, later settled in the United States, and died in Paris on 29 September 1977.