Sergei Bortkiewicz

Sergei Eduardovich Bortkiewicz ( – 25 October 1952) was a Romantic composer and pianist. He moved to Vienna in 1922 and became a naturalized Austrian citizen in 1926. Life Early life and origins Sergei Eduardovich Bortkiewicz was born in Kharkov in the Russian Empire (present-day Kharkiv, Ukraine), on 28 February 1877 to parents Edward and Zofia () Bortkiewicz, who were Polish nobility. He spent most of his childhood on the family estate of Artiomovka, near Kharkov. Bortkiewicz received his musical training from Anatoly Lyadov and Karel van Ark at the Imperial Conservatory of Music in Saint Petersburg. In 1900, he left Saint Petersburg and travelled to Leipzig, where he became a student of Alfred Reisenauer and Salomon Jadassohn, both pupils of Franz Liszt. In July 1902, Bortkiewicz completed his studies at the Leipzig Conservatory and was awarded the Schumann Prize on graduation. On his return to the Russian Empire in 1904, he married Elisabeth Geraklitowa, a friend of his sister, and then returned to Germany, where he settled in Berlin. It was there that he started to compose seriously. From 1904 until 1914, Bortkiewicz continued to live in Berlin but spent his summers visiting h