Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov. Moscow, 2019

In November 2019, a monument to the composer, conductor, and educator Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (1859–1935) was opened in Moscow, outside the State Music and Pedagogical Institute named in his honor. Back in 1919, Ippolitov-Ivanov established Moscow Public Music School No. 4, which he also helped finance. In 1923, the school was named after its founder. A protégé of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Ippolitov-Ivanov was hired by the Moscow Conservatory, where he taught for the best part of his professorial career.

Promoted to the position of the conservatory’s rector, he sought to preserve its traditions during the difficult years of World War I and the 1917 Revolution. As a conductor, Ippolitov-Ivanov collaborated with Savva Mamontov’s Moscow Private Russian Opera and later with the Bolshoi Theatre.

The sculptor, as he often does, seated the composer’s figure on the edge of an ornate bench.
However, this monument does not seem to have the self-confidence seen in Zeinalov’s statue of Giacomo Puccini or any of the detachment of the Writer from Rasskazovka. On the contrary, it exudes calmness and deliberation. The figure appears open and approachable, as a natural-born teacher should be.

The monument was a gift from Aidyn Zeinalov to the Music and Pedagogical Institute in the year that marked 100 years since the institute’s foundation and 160 years since Ippolitov-Ivanov’s birth.