Philadelphia Classical Music Community member Ghenady Meirson passed away after a fierce battle with cancer.

Meirson was born in Odessa, Ukraine and graduated from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied piano with Seymour Lipkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski and accompanying with Vladimir Sokoloff.

In 1982, Meirson wrote “Do Sing in Russian,” which placed an emphasis on familiarizing singers with the Russian vocal repertory. From there he founded the Russian Opera workshop, a program based in Philadelphia that furthered this mission of helping singers explore the Russian repertory.

Additionally, Meirson prepared singers for opera, oratorio, recitals, and recordings, and collaborated with such organizations as The Philadelphia Orchestra, Opera Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Singers, and the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia.

He also founded PrivateLessons.com, a network for independent teachers.