Аркадий Покрасс

Arkady Pokrass (1898–196?) was a Russian virtuoso pianist, composer, and conductor, brother of Samuel, Dmitry, and Daniel Pokrass. He was born in Kiev and studied at the Conservatory. Pokrass was an accompanist for various popular singers, including Natalia Tamara (1873–1934). Unfortunately, "gypsy" music fell out of favor by the end of the 1920s, leaving Tamara without repertoire and leading to the complete abandonment of her career (Natalia ended her life broke and forgotten). As a big propagator of Russian romance, Arkady also suffered from the new ideological climate, but in the 1930s, he turned back to success by introducing Vadim Kozin to the Moscow audience. The singer soon became hugely popular across the whole Soviet Union, and Arkady Pokrass had been accompanying him. In 1936, Pokrass also worked as a conductor of the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure Variety Orchestra in Moscow. After a conflict with Lavrenti Beria in 1939, Kozin was prosecuted and sent to exile in the Kolyma. Pokrass lost his protégé and barely escaped arrest himself. After that, not much is known about his life. One of the last documented mentions was discovered in Tambov archives. According to it, Arkady Pokrass was spotted at the grand opening of the local club in 1949, together with an artist Sergey Martinson. Unlike Dmitry and Daniel, Arkady was practically forgotten. The exact time and place of death are also unknown. One of his gramophone records was mentioned in the ad in BIRYUCH of Petrograd State Theatres magazine, Issue No. 4, 1918.