For years, we’ve been told to use April 1 as the Russian master’s official birthday and this has been confirmed by the Name Authority File on record at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Yet, Rachmaninoff himself celebrated his birthdays on April 2nd and his request for U.S. naturalization also shows April 2 listed as the birth date, which was signed by Rachmaninoff himself.
I’ll be sharing exactly this and a few other anecdotes about Rachmaninoff’s life in a special tribute-concert tomorrow – Saturday, March 3, 2021. It will be my first in-person, live concert of the year for a small, socially distanced crowd in the beautiful wine country of Temecula Valley. The concert takes place at the art gallery of Inna Pankratova, an internationally-renowned painter, whose captivating textures and vibrant colors have been featured in museums and private collections throughout England, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Yugoslavia and the United States.
I’ve wondered about this as well. Given that Russia used a different calendar, by which his birthday was March 20, he might’ve miscalculated the conversion to the standard calendar.
Or he might have changed his birthday in documents intentionally, upon learning it should be on the 1st in this system (thinking it bad luck or embarrassing to have a birthday on April fool’s day).
My birthday is April 2. My mom, who had a c-section, specifically asked to wait until midnight had passed to have me. The plan was for me to be born on the first but she didn’t want that.
I’m a pianist and have loved rachmaninoff’s music for many years, and had no idea we “share” a birthday until pretty recently.