Kirill Petrovich Kondrashin (1914-1981) – Russian conductor. Born in Moscow. Graduated in conducting under Boris E. Khaikin from Moscow music conservatory in 1936. From 1934 worked at The Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Musical Theater as an assistant conductor; from 1937 conductor at the Maliy Theater in Leningrad. In 1943 was invited to The Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, where he fruitfully worked for 13 years. From 1938 Kondrashin had constant concert activity, taken the lead of the Moscow Youth Symphony Orchestra. After leaving the theater in 1956, he became a guest conductor to various metropolitan and provincial orchestras. In 1958 was extended an invitation to tour the United States and the Great Britain after conducting at the First International Tchaikovsky Competition, where particularly performed with Van Cliburn. 1960-1978 was in the lead of the Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. The premiers of D. Shostakovich No.4 and No.13 symphonies and «The Execution of Stepan Rasin», as well as a number of A. Khachaturian, G. Sviridov and R. Schedrin opuses took place under his baton. In 1978 went into exile to the Nitherlands, folowing which all conductor's tape recordings in the USSR were demagnetized. Died 8th March 1981 in Amsterdam.