Igor
Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century and a pivotal figure in modernist music. Stravinsky's compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913). His "Russian phase", which continued with works such as Renard, L'histoire du soldat, and Les noces, was followed in the 1920s by a period in which he turned to neoclassicism. In the 1950s, Stravinsky adopted serial procedures.