Gavriil Popov
Russian composer Gavriil Nikolaevich Popov was born in what's now Rostov Oblast on 12 September 1904 into the family of a teacher. He studied music from age six, and later at the Leningrad Conservatory, but also had to study to be a draftsman, and worked in the Rostov railway workshops after his mother had died and his father was arrested on false charges.
His powerful and forward-looking first symphony was banned due to its formalism by a local censor, which led him to write in a more conservative style.
He was an alcoholic, but managed to complete six symphonies, the poem-cantata Honour to our Party and several film scores.
He died on 17 February 1972, aged sixty-seven.
A selection of articles about Gavriil Popov
Resounding Echoes by Robert McCarney - Heaven and Hell
Resounding Echoes by Robert McCarney - Kids' Stuff