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Igor Stravinsky > 
Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky was one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. The son of a famous bass singer at the Imperial Opera, Stravinsky showed little inclination to pursue a musical career until, while a law student, he began to study composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Stravinsky was catapulted into the musical limelight with the composition of three ballets for the Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev in Paris: Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913). The latter work caused a celebrated scandal at its first performance and remains one of the best-known and most influential pieces of 20th-century music. During World War I, Stravinsky lived in Switzerland, and shortly afterward he settled in France. His creative association with Diaghilev continued until 1929 and included notable collaborations with Pablo Picasso and Leonid Massine (Pulcinella, 1920), Jean Cocteau (Oedipus Rex, 1927), and George Balanchine (Apollon Musagete, 1928). In 1939 he moved to the United States.
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