Alexander (Nikolayevich) Tcherepnin (1899-1977) was a Russian-French and later American composer of ballets, operas, and instrumental music. Alexander Tcherepnin was born on January 21, 1899, in St. Petersburg, Russia. Descended from a family of musicians, Alexander benefitted from the experience of his father, Nikolay Tcherepnin (1873-1945), a conductor and composer who studied with Rimsky-Korsakov. The family house in St. Petersburg was a place where many well-known musicians and artists liked to meet. In this privileged atmosphere, the gifts of Alexander Tcherepnin were confirmed at an early age. At 14 he had already written an opera, a ballet, and several pieces for piano. In 1918 the family moved to Tbilisi, where Alexander continued his studies at the music conservatory. At the same time he gave concerts as both pianist and conductor. In 1921 the political situation forced the family to leave Russia. They settled in Paris, where Alexander completed his studies with Paul Vidal (composition) and Isidor Philipp (piano). Later he became the co-founder of L'Ecole de Paris with Bohuslav Martinů Conrad Beck, and Marcel Mihalovici, a group of foreign composers close to the neoclassical movement, although at the same time very interested in the music of their respective homelands. He made his Western début in London (1922), and a year later his ballet Ajanta's Frescoes, written for Pavlova, was performed at Covent Garden. Although he began a professional tour of America in 1926, it was in 1927 in Paris that he suddenly attained fame after the premiere of his first symphony, which was a succès de scandale. (An entire section of the work is performed exclusively by percussion instruments.) Between 1934 and 1937 he travelled in several Far-Eastern countries. He taught in Tokyo, where he settled down for a while and founded a music publishing corporation to promote the works of his pupils. It was in Shanghai that he met the pianist Lee Hsien Ming, whom he married a few years later. Returning to France in 1938, Alexander Tcherepnin was unfortunately forced to limit his activities during World War II. In 1948 he returned to the United States to teach at De Paul University, Chicago, becoming an American citizen in 1958. From 1964 to his death in 1977 he divided his time between Paris and New York. An invitation from the Soviet government in 1967 allowed him to tour his native country extensively.