Ippolitov-Ivanov became professor of composition at the Moscow Conservatory in 1893, and was the schools's director from 1906 to 1922. He conduted first performances of several Rimsky-Korsakov operas while in Moscow. He went back to Tiflis in 1924 to reorganize the conservatory there but returned to Moscow to become director of the Bolshoi Theatre from 1925 until his death on January 28, 1935.
Ippolitov-Ivanov's early years in Tiflis left deep marks on his compositions. He employed Georgian and Armenian melodies in his orchestral suite Caucassian Sketches (1894) and laterorchestral works. He also composed symphonic, vocal and chamber music and completed Moussorgsky's opera Marriage (1931). Of his own operas the most ambitious is The Last Barricade (1933).
Gerald E.H. Abraham
Encyclopedia Americana