Aleksandr Borodin Biography

Alexander Borodin was a well-known music composer, doctor, chemist and philanthropist. He developed an interest towards chamber music while pursuing his chemical studies. He composed many symphonies, out of which “Prince Igor” is considered to be his best work. It was Franz Liszt, a Hungarian composer who helped him to earn fame as a music composer outside of the Russian Empire. Strong lyrical quality and presence of rich musical harmony are some of the features of his music composition. He developed a close acquaintance with Mily Balakirev who was a champion of Russian nationalistic music. He was greatly inspired by the works of Balakirev. He was a member of the group of composers called ‘The Five’ of Russia (Mily Balakirev, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Borodin) whose goal was to create an exclusive style of Russian art music. As a chemist, he discovered the ‘Aldol-reaction/condensation’, which has a very important role in the field of organic chemistry. He published several scientific papers on his research studies. In one of his scientific papers, he shared his idea about the identification of urea in animal urine. St. Petersburg Medical School for Women was founded by him, which established him as a great philanthropist.