Nicolas Koudriavtzeff

Koudriavtzeff, Nicolas

Nicolas (de) Koudriavtzeff. Impresario, b Nikolayev, near Odessa, 7 Feb 1896, naturalized Canadian 1960, d Montreal 31 Aug 1980. He studied violin, then piano, while attending university in Odessa and St Petersburg. In 1919 he left Russia for Paris, where he became a journalist, a publicist, and a writer/editor of concert and theatre programs - notably for Russian opera and ballet productions during the 1920s. When Colonel Wassili de Basil organized the Ballets de Monte Carlo he asked Koudriavtzeff to arrange the international tours of the group, and the arrangements took him to Canada for the first time in 1934. In 1943 he founded and became president and director-general of both Canadian Concerts & Artists Inc. in Montreal and American-Canadian Concerts & Artists in New York. Koudriavtzeff's efforts in promoting artistic exchanges between Canada and the USSR resulted in 1960 in an official agreement between the two countries. When Canadian Concerts & Artists declared bankruptcy in 1976, he founded and became president of Concerts & Artistes Canadiens Inc. In 1973 he was made a Member of the Order of Canada and in 1980 he received the Canadian Music Council Medal. His papers are held at the National Library of Canada.