Тихон Хренников (Tikhon Khrennikov)

While Tikhon Khrennikov (1913-2007) was a composer and pianist of some ability, he’s better known today as a well-rewarded apparatchik during the Communist Era. The youngest of 10 children, his first piano concerto and first symphony were written while he was still a student, and attracted the notice of the leading lights of Soviet music. In 1948, Joseph Stalin appointed him as secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers, a position he held until the disbandment of the USSR in 1991, and from which he participated in the persecution of numerous musicians. An unrepentant Communist to the end, he won numerous medals and prizes under the regime.