Mitrofan Belyayev

Tchaikovsky Research
Mitrofan Belyayev (1836-1904), in an 1886 portrait by Ilya Repin

Russian music publisher and impresario (born 10/22 September 1836 in Saint Petersburg; d. 28 December 1903/10 January 1904 in Saint Petersburg), born Mitrofan Petrovich Belyayev (Митрофан Петрович Беляев).

The son of Pyotr Abramovich Belyayev, a wealthy timber merchant, he was educated at the German-speaking Reform School in Saint Petersburg until the age of 15, where he learnt the piano, violin and viola. Although he joined his father's timber business, he retained his musical interests, and was an active participant in amateur symphony concerts, eventually launching his own series of "Russian Symphony Concerts" and "Russian Quartet Evenings" in the capital. Tchaikovsky conducted his own works at a number of Russian Symphony Concerts during the late 1880s and early 1890s.

In 1885, Belyayev established a music publishing house ("M. P. Beliaeff") devoted to the works of Russian composers, based in Leipzig and Saint Petersburg. After Tchaikovsky's death, Belyayev published the orchestral works The Storm, Fatum, The Voyevoda, and the Andante and Finale for piano and orchestra, under the posthumous opus numbers 76 to 79.

After Belyayev's death in 1894, his publishing house was eventually succeeded by C. F. Peters in Leipzig.

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