Jacques Gershkovitch was a Russian conductor and musician who became the first music director of the Portland Junior Symphony, the first youth orchestra in the United States, based in Portland, Oregon.
19 Facts About Jacques Gershkovitch
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Jacques Gershkovitch returned to Irkutsk to enlist during World War I, and by 1916 he had become head of the Imperial Russian Army's military symphony orchestra.
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Jacques Gershkovitch held this position through the Russian Revolution and thereafter, as concerts were often presented as benefits for orphans and the Red Cross.
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Jacques Gershkovitch remained in Japan to lead the newly organized Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
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Jacques Gershkovitch was born in 1884 to a Jewish family in Irkutsk near Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia.
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Jacques Gershkovitch was sent to Saint Petersburg in his late teens to study at the Imperial Conservatory.
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The 4,000-mile journey took two weeks via the newly constructed Trans-Siberian Railway, and Jacques Gershkovitch arrived with "17 rubles in his pocket and his flute under his arm".
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However, this period was shortened due to World War I, and Jacques Gershkovitch returned to Irkutsk to enlist.
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In 1916, Jacques Gershkovitch became head of the Imperial Russian Army's military symphony orchestra, a position he held through the Russian Revolution.
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Army duties continued after the war as concerts were often given as benefits for orphans and the Red Cross, and it was during this period that Jacques Gershkovitch met his future wife Lucia.
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However, the chief was a devotee of music and requested that Jacques Gershkovitch produce a grand opera.
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Jacques Gershkovitch provided a collection of musical instruments previously confiscated by the Bolsheviks.
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When living conditions deteriorated, Jacques Gershkovitch traveled to China and obtained permission to visit Vladivostok via Manchuria.
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When ballerina Anna Pavlova heard that Jacques Gershkovitch had escaped from Russia, she offered him a position as assistant conductor with her orchestra, which was touring throughout Asia.
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Jacques Gershkovitch taught flute and conducted the Ellison-White Conservatory's student orchestra, at the time directed by Jacob Avshalomov, until the PJS duties required his full attention.
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Jacques Gershkovitch, known for his discipline and high performance standards, conducted the orchestra for twenty-nine years, gaining national attention for the ensemble and pioneering the youth orchestra movement.
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In 1956 and 1958 both NBC and CBS transmitted broadcasts of the orchestra's programs across the United States, and three transcribed programs were broadcast overseas from Voice of America in Washington, DC Jacques Gershkovitch was responsible for adding a Preparatory Orchestra due to increased membership.
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Jacques Gershkovitch tried to incorporate at least one American composition in each concert.
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For twenty-five years, David Campbell served as Master of Ceremonies for the Children's Concerts since Jacques Gershkovitch "never gained a command of English sufficient enough for public use".