Constantine Klimoff
Constantine Klimoff (Konstantin Klimov; 1896, Jelgava, Courland Governorate, Russian Empire – 1974, Montreal, Canada) – a music teacher.
Constantine Klimoff was born in Mitau (now Jelgava) – the main city of the Courland governorate. He spent his childhood years in Mitau and Libau (now Liepaja). In 1907 he enrolled into the Libau Gymnasium, however, since his father was transferred to Warsaw, in 1911 he enrolled into the Warsaw 1st Male Gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1915.
Klimoff participated in the World War I, and the Civil War in Russia (he joined the White armies).
Being in the rank of an ensign, on the 6th of October 1919, Constantine Klimoff married Xenia Aleksandrovitch (born in 1899)
In 1921 the Klimoffs returned to Latvia. In 1922 Constantine Klimoff enrolled into the Conservatory of Latvia, the class of docent Nikolajs Dauge. In 1927 he graduated from the Conservatory with a degree of an independent artist, having finished the complete course in the grand piano.
In 1927-1929 Constantine Klimoff had been working as a teacher in the Riga 1st Music School, as well as gave private lessons in the theory and harmony of grand piano music.
Starting from the 1st of August 1936 he had been working at the Riga State Russian Gymnasium. In 1937 the Qualification Commission of the Ministry of Education accepted Constantine Klimoff as a rightful teacher of music and singing in the secondary schools of Russian national minority.
From 1941 till 1944 he had been working as a teacher and an inspector of the Riga City Russian Gymnasium (the former State Russian Gymnasium).
In 1944 C.Klimoff moved to Austria, afterwards – to Germany, and in 1948 he immigrated to Canada. There he taught music, at first at the Catholic Seminary in True-Rivier (the province of Quebec), and in 1950 he was invited for a position of a professor in the Conservatory by the Laval University (the city of Quebec), where he worked till his retirement in 1965. At the end of that year and following the death of his wife, Klimoff moved to Montreal, to his brother Eugene.
Constantine Klimoff died in Montreal on the 23rd of May 1974 and was buried in Ottawa.
Constantine Klimoff was the author of the following manuscripts: “1919”, “In the Memory of the Murdered Eminent JOHN, the Archbishop of Riga and all Latvia”, and memoirs “What I Could Remember” (in Russian). Both of the abovementioned works were published in the 2nd and 3rd issues of “Latvian Orthodox Chronograph”.
Constantine Klimoff had three brothers: an artist Eugene, an engineer Paul (1899-1970) and an antiquarian George Klimoff.
Tatiana Feigmane
Source of information:
LSHA, f.1632, inv.1, file 10074.
The biography was supplemented and corrected by Alexei Klimoff.
