Ivan Alchevsky - In fernem Land

Ivan Alchevsky (1876-1917) was born in in Kharkov to a prosperous and artistic family. His father Oleksiy was a famed industrialist and banker, his mother Krystyna, a renowned teacher and pedagogue and his sister Krystia was a celebrated poet. Alchevsky showed early promise as a musician and studied violin and voice with his brother Grigori, a renowned poet, composer, voice teacher and singer. In 1901, the elder Alchevsky committed suicide following the failure of his business, plunging the family into bankruptcy. The trauma of his father’s tragic death and his family’s subsequent poverty put Ivan into a depression which would affect him for the rest of his life. The young man left the University of Kharkov (where he was studying science) and began to exploit his musical talents to help ease his family’s financial burden. He traveled to St. Petersburg and was accepted into the Mariinsky Theatre in the fall of 1901. Following further periods of study in Paris (with legendary tenor Jean de Re