Autographed photo of conductor Kirill Kondrashin

Kirill Petrovich Kondrashin is a Soviet conductor. People's Artist of the USSR (1972), winner of two Stalin Prizes (1948, 1949) and the Glinka State Prize of the RSFSR (1969).

He is considered one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century. According to his own words, he sought, like the conductors of previous years, to develop his own unique and inimitable sound of the orchestra. During his time with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, he performed many works by classical and modern authors, including a cycle of all Mahler symphonies (for promoting the composer's work in 1974, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the International Gustav Mahler Society), as well as works by Bartok, Hindemith, Khachaturian, Weinberg, Sviridov, Boris Tchaikovsky (dedicated to the conductor his Second Symphony) and many other composers. He performed all 15 of Shostakovich's symphonies, and his Fourth and Thirteenth symphonies were performed for the first time (in 1961 and 1962, respectively).