Maximilian Steinberg

Russian Composer and Music Educator

Maximilian Steinberg (1883 – 1946) was a Russian composer, conductor, musical educator, professor at the Petrograd Conservatory (since 1915), one of the favorite pupils and son-in-law of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He graduated from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1908 and started teaching there the same year. Some of his prominent students include Semyon Cherneczkiy and Dmitri Shostakovich. Steinberg wrote five symphonies, two ballets: Metamorphoses (1913) based on Ovid and Thyl Ulenspiegel (1936) by Charles De Coster, as well as a number of symphonic and vocal pieces. He is often confused with songwriter and composer Mikhail Karlovich Steinberg (1867–?), author of 'Heida Troika' (Гай-да Тройка) and over 70 other popular early XX century romances. Works signed as simply 'M. Steinberg' had been sometimes misattributed even in libraries and catalogues.