Anatole Fistoulari was a British conductor. His musical journey began under the tutelage of his father, Gregor Fistoulari. At age seven, Anatole conducted Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pathétique”) at a charity concert in Kyiv, later appearing with orchestras in Odessa, Bucharest, and Berlin. In the 1930s, he conducted extensively in Paris, including the Grand Opera Russe, and collaborated with Léonide Massine’s Ballets Russes, touring widely across Europe and the United States. During World War II, Fistoulari settled in England after escaping France, becoming principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1943 to 1944. He later became a British citizen in 1948 and continued an international career focused especially on ballet and Russian repertoire. He specialized in ballet music, conducting works by Tchaikovsky, Delibes, and Adam, and made numerous recordings from the late 1940s onward for labels including Decca and EMI. Fistoulari died on August 21, 1995, in London.
