Vladimir N. Drozdoff

Vladimir Nikolayevich Drozdoff (; May 25, 1882March 11, 1960) was a prizewinning Russian-American classical pianist and composer. He was a student at the Saratov Music School (precursor to the Saratov Conservatory), and the St. Petersburg Conservatory where he studied piano with Anna Yesipova and composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. There are 132 complete compositions and another 56 fragments of Drozdoff. Original manuscripts are housed between the St. Petersburg Conservatory's Scientific Library and the family's private collection.
Life and early career
Vladimir Drozdoff was born in Saratov, Russian Empire to Olga Alexandrovna Balmasheva-Drozdova and Nikolai Vasilyevich Drozdoff. He was the oldest of three boys, all of whom were musicians. A year younger, his brother Anatoly was both a composer and pedagogue, also a graduate of the St Petersburg Conservatory, and later a professor at the Moscow Conservatory; the youngest, Valerian, was a violinist. Their mother, Olga Aleksandrovna Balmasheva (Drozdova) was a teacher of music at the Saratov Music School. Vladimir Drozdoff, was, during his life, a well-known and respected concert pianist and composer, both in Russia and Europe and in the United States after he emigrated post Revolution.
At the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, he studied piano under Anna Essipova, composition under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, was the youngest professor ever appointed at the Conservatory, and was the colleague of Auer, Medtner, Godowsky, Glazounov, Liadov, and Gretchaninov; and it was here where he first met Sergei Rachmaninoff His students at the St. Petersburg Conservatory included Emanuel Bay, Maria Yudina and Pauline Heifitz. In New York, his wife Anna Drozdova (who, like Drozdoff, was accepted as an especially talented student at St. Petersburg Conservatory, and also graduated with a gold medal), his daughter Nathalie Drozdoff-Cherny, and son Paul Drozdoff all taught in the Drozdoff Studio at 302 West 107th Street and later at 204 West 81st Street. Vladimir, Nathalie, and Paul also performed, both individually and together, from the 1920s to the 1950s.

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