Levon Avtomyan

Soviet-Armenian conductor, arranger, and music editor (1901-1973) He studied at Tbilisi University, but in 1929, he moved to Moscow. In 1934-1936 was appointed as the Bolshoi Theatre’s assistant director of theatres and of the studio. He was friends with Shostakovich and became a trusted collaborator and his arranger; as such, he arranged many suites from Shostakovich’s theatre and film music; he also transcribed 2 symphonies of Shostakovich for piano 4 hands. On a personal request of Sergey Prokofyev, he also made piano transcriptions of almost all Prokofyev's symphonies, operas and ballets.