He was the 2nd of 3 kids from Sofia Kokalouina (pianist), and Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostrakovich (chemical engineer).
Dmitri’s mom, Sofia, taught him how to play the piano at age 9, and Dmitri stood out as a prodigy. When Dmitri turned 13 his parents enrolled him in St. Petersburg Conservatory which is where he began to study piano and composition. In 1925 Dmitri graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and wrote his 1st classical symphony which he named, “1st Symphony”, as his graduation piece.
After Dmitri graduated from the conservatory, he worked as a concert pianist for money and composed pieces in his spare time. Later, after much work, Dmitri managed to win the honorable mention award at the Warsaw International Piano Competition in 1927. After the contest, composer Bruno Walter very much impressed offered to conduct his “1st Symphony” in Berlin. In 1927 Dmitri finished his “2nd Symphony” and started working on his 1st opera which he would name, “The Nose”. In 1930 he finally finished it and premiered it but it turned out to be a failure.
It got poor reviews from people like Dmitri Kabalevsky who criticized his music for political reasons. It was so bad that the opera got banned from Russia. Dmitri was devastated and had a nervous breakdown and later had suicidal thoughts, but was treated. Later on Dmitri met a woman named Nina Varzar and married her in 1932. The marriage went well until 1935 when they divorced over a long period of discussions, but later on they got reunited. World War II broke with Germany in 1941 and Dmitri served as a fire warden for a propaganda poster, but he still found time to write his 7th Symphony.
The Essay on Dimitri Shostakovich Music Symphony Soviet
... the Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg, later Leningrad) Conservatory in 1919, where he studied the piano with Leonid Nikolayev until 1923 and ... ConsultedBlokker, Roy and Robert Dealing. The Music of Dmitri Shostakovich: the symphonies. Tantivy Press, 1979 Brown, Royal S. 'Interview with ... some of his best music, especially the Eighth Symphony (1943), the Piano Trio (1944), and the Violin Concerto No. 1 ...
This symphony was very popular and served as a form of inspiration for the Russian army. Feeling accomplished Dmitri wrote his 8th symphony which was very different from his 7th. This piece too turned out to be banned from Russia until 1960. In the mid 1940’s Dmitri wrote his “Violin Concerto No. 1” and it was a success. And in 1949 he composed “The Song of the Forests” and making Joseph Stalin (Russia’s dictator during the time) “the great gardener” it was accepted and liked by the people.
After Stalin’s death in 1953 Dmitri composed his 10th symphony which was practically dedicated to him. In 1954 Dmitri’s wife Nina died , and he stayed alone for 2 years until he met Margarita Kainova in 1956 and married her, but divorced in 1959. Later on in 1960 Dmitri joined the Communist Party (something he wanted to do since he was very young) but then regretted it. Then in 1962 he married again to a woman named Irina Supinskaya. The fact that their ages differenced by 29 years didn’t matter to them because they stayed together until Dmitri’s death.
