Composer · 1937-2020
Nikolai Kapustin
Biography
Nikolai Kapustin
(b Gorlovka, Donetsk province, 22 Nov 1937). Ukrainian light music and jazz composer.
He graduated in 1961 from the Moscow Conservatory where he studied the piano with Goldenweiser. At various points in his career he has been the pianist in Oleg Lundstrem’s Symphony Orchestra of Light Music (1961–72), the Television and Radio Light Orchestra of Vadim Lyudvikovsky (1972–7), the State Cinematography SO (1977–84), and he has appeared in ensembles with jazz musicians such as the saxophonists G. Garanyan and A. Zubov and the guitarist A. Kuznetsov. Primarily the composer of instrumental music, he made his début as composer and pianist at the Sixth International Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow (1957) with his Concerto for piano and jazz orchestra with the TsDRI (the youth light orchestra of the Central House for Employees in the Arts) under the direction of Yu. Saul'sky.