Vissarion Shebalin was born on June 11, 1902 in Omsk. His parents were school teachers. He studied in the musical college in Omsk. He was 20 years old when following the advice of his professor went to Moscow to show his first compositions to Gliere and Myaskovsky. Both famous composers thought very highly of his compositions. Shebalin graduated from Moscow Conservatory in 1928. His diploma work was the 1st Symphony which the author dedicated to his professor N. Myaskovsky. Many years later his last 5th Symphony was dedicated to his memory.

In the 1920s Shebalin was a member of the Association of Modern Music; he was a participant of the informal circle of Moscow musicians — “Lamm’s group”, who gathered in the apartment of Pavel Lamm, the professor of Moscow Conservatory; Shebalin was a close friend of D. Shostakovitch.

After graduating from Moscow Conservatory, he worked there as a professor, and in 1935 became also a head of the composition class in Gnessin Musical College. In the very difficult years of 1942-1948 he was a director of the Moscow Conservatory and the art director of the Central Musical School in Moscow. He fell victim to the Zhdanov purge of artists in 1948 and fell into obscurity afterwards. Among his students were L. Auster, E.Denisov, G.Frid, T.Khrennikov, K.Khachaturian, A.Pakhmutova, and others. Shebalin was one of the founders of and the chairman of the board (1941-1942) of the Moscow Union of Composers.

Shebalin worked in many musical genres. Among his creations are operas, symphonies, string quartets, trios and sonatas, choral music, romances, songs, music to dramas, radio plays, and movies. One of the most interesting works of Shebalin is his opera “Taming of the Shrew” (1957). Shebalin was on of the most cultural and erudite composers of his generation; his serious intellectual styles, certain academic approach to composition make him close to N. Myaskovsky.

V.Shebalin died on May 29, 1963. He was buried in the Novodevichy cemetery near his professors and colleagues