Composer, teacher, People's Artist of Belarus
Nikolai Ilyich Aladov (December 21, 1890 — December 4, 1972) was a composer, teacher, and People’s Artist of Belarus.
Nikolai Ilyich Aladov was born on December 21, 1890 in St. Petersburg in the family of an official. At the age of nine, he started studying music, and two years later he tried his hand at composition. Thanks to his studies with the teacher, composer and ethnographer Yakov Prokhorov, in 1910 he passed the external exams for the full course of the composition faculty of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Later, Nikolai Aladov was engaged in teaching and music education activities.
Since 1924, Nikolai Aladov’s life and work have been associated with Belarus; he was invited to teach at the Belarusian State Music College. Since 1932, he continued his teaching career at the Belarusian State Conservatory. During the Great Patriotic War, Nikolai Aladov was evacuated to Saratov, where he taught at the local conservatory. After returning to liberated Minsk in 1944, the composer was appointed rector of the Belarusian Conservatory and headed it until 1948. Over the years of his teaching career, Aladov has educated many outstanding musicians, composers and musicologists, including A.Bogatyrev, V.Olovnikov, I.Kuznetsov, F.Pytalev, S.Nisnevich and others.
Nikolai Aladov’s creative career lasted more than 60 years. With his works of the 1920s and 1930s, he laid the foundations of the genres of Belarusian professional music. The composer created about 500 works of various genres: cantatas, symphonic works, program suites, overtures, monumental concert fantasies for violin and flute accompanied by orchestra, choirs and romances, numerous chamber and instrumental compositions for piano, instrumental ensembles.
The composer paid great attention to the organization of musical notation in Belarus, participated in folklore expeditions to collect Belarusian folk songs. Since 1932, Nikolai Aladov was a member of the Union of Composers of the BSSR, and in 1949-1950 he was chairman of its board.
Nikolai Aladov’s name occupies a special place among the representatives of Belarusian professional music. The talented Belarusian composer’s creative and social activities have been marked by two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, the Badge of Honor, and medals. In 1955, the composer was awarded the honorary title of People’s Artist of Belarus.
![N.I.Aladov with musical artists M.Schneiderman, I.Zhinovich, E.Tikotsky, G.Wagner, P.Podkovyrov and others. in a music store in Minsk. [The 1950s]-стр. 0](https://letopis.by/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/4.jpg)
