Alexander Bellow (1912-1976) was an excellent, well-known classical guitar teacher, composer and archivist. He arrived in the USA in 1949 with the first wave of Russian immigrants after WWII. He lived in New York, NY at the time of his death on West 72nd Street with his wife. They had one daughter. His family was from Georgia and he was living in Moscow when the Bolsheviks took over his home which was determined to be big enough for four families. The Persian carpets were therefore cut into four pieces. He went to the Moscow Conservatory of Music and was a part of the Russian music scene in the thirties. In WWII he was the only survivor in his company in a battle with the Nazis. He remained hidden beneath the bodies of his fellow soldiers until nightfall and then began a journey, sneaking to Tuebingen, Germany where his pre-war musician friends hid him for the remainder of the conflict. In New York, he had many excellent classical guitar students and would hold an annual student recital at Little Carnegie Recital Hall.
Tom Silver studied Classical Guitar with Alexander Bellow in New York, but left the music world to do post-graduate work and pursue a business career. ... www.cduniverse.com/classical.asp?composer=Luiz+Bonfa - Cached
JJ Keyser, MD was his student from 1965-1971. Recital pieces 1967: Recuerdos de la Alhambra and a John Dowland Fantasy.
Bellow would travel to the Vatican in the summers where he was admitted to their ancient musical library to retrieve musical compositions from the tablature, putting them into modern notation. Valderabano (sp?) was one such composer brought back into modern times. FIND MORE
His own compositions for guitar were very "guitaristic", the fingerings fitting easily on the fingerboard. FIND MORE # Bibliography of classical guitar Bellow, Alexander - The Illustrated History of the Guitar. Franco Colombo Publications. USA 1970. Belwin/Mills Publishing Corp. ... 7 KB (1,077 words) - 08:41, 31 July 2010
- List of composers for the classical guitar (chronological)
1912 -: Bellow, Alexander (1912–1976) (Russia, USA)
Bellow was an abstract painter, pioneering the oil modified by gravity technique. PHOTO OF ONE CANVAS with signature on reverse.
He died suddenly of a heart attack, age 63. Russian Orthodox funeral service in NYC.