From Wikipedia: Kirill Petrovich Kondrashin (Russian: Кири́лл Петро́вич Кондра́шин, Kirill Petrovič Kondrašin; 1914-03-06, Moscow – 1981-03-07, Amsterdam) was a Soviet conductor. He studied at the Leningrad Conservatory under another Soviet conductor Boris Khaikin (who was just 3 years older than Kondrashin himself) and conducted at the Maliy Theatre in Leningrad from 1938 to 1942 and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow from 1943. Read more on Last.fm