Pashkevich, Vasily (Alexeievich)
Pashkevich, Vasily (Alexeievich)
Pashkevich, Vasily (Alexeievich) , Russian violinist and composer; b. c. 1740; d. St. Petersburg, March 20,1797. In 1763 he was admitted as a violinist to the 2nd court orch. in St. Petersburg. His Russian opera A Carriage Accident was performed in St. Petersburg on Nov. 7, 1779; in 1782 he presented 2 comic operas in Russian: The Miser (Moscow) and The Pasha of Tunis (St. Petersburg). In 1783 he became a violinist in the first court orch. In 1786 he was commissioned by Catherine the Great to write a comic Russian opera, Fevey, for which the Empress herself wrote the libretto. It was produced in St. Petersburg on April 19, 1786, and Pashkevich received an award of 1,000 rubles. He was then made chief of ball music at the Imperial Palace and concertmaster of the first court orch. (1786); received the honorary rank of colonel. In 1790 he collaborated with Sarti and Canobbio on another Russian opera to a text of Catherine the Great, The Early Reign of Oleg, which was first produced at the palace, and publicly performed in St. Petersburg on Nov. 2, 1790. In collaboration with Martin y Soler, he wrote still another comic opera to a text by the Empress, Fedul and His Children (perf. at the palace, Jan. 27, 1791; publicly, St. Petersburg, March 2, 1791). His Mass according to the Russian Orthodox liturgy was publ. in Moscow in 1796.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire