Faier Yuri Fyodorovich (1890, Kyiv — 1971, Moscow) — conductor, violinist.
In 1905, Yuri Faier performed in the orchestra of the Kyiv City Theatre. From 1906, he studied at the Moscow Conservatory in the class of I. V. Grzhimali and also trained with G. N. Dulov. From 1907, he toured with an orchestra composed mainly of musicians from the Bolshoi Theatre, performing in Kislovodsk, Yekaterinodar, Kharkiv, Sevastopol, and Rostov-on-Don.
From 1910, he performed as a soloist and simultaneously worked as first concertmaster of the German City Theatre in Riga. From 1911, he also taught violin at the music school of the Imperial Russian Musical Society and made his debut as a conductor.
From 1914, he lived in Moscow, resumed studies with Dulov at the conservatory, and graduated in 1917. At the same time, he played in the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre. From 1919, he was assistant to chief conductor A. F. Arends at the Bolshoi Theatre; from the early 1920s, he became a conductor, and from 1923 to 1963 served as chief conductor of ballet productions.
He collaborated with Reinhold Glière (The Red Poppy, The Bronze Horseman), Sergei Prokofiev (Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, The Tale of the Stone Flower), Aram Khachaturian (Gayane, Spartacus), D. L. Klebanov (The Little Stork), Boris Asafyev (Flames of Paris, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai), V. M. Yurovsky (Scarlet Sails), and A. A. Krein (Laurencia).
The uniqueness of Faier as a conductor lay in the combination of high professional musical skill with a deep understanding of stage practice and classical ballet technique, which ensured precision of choreographic interpretation and harmony between music and dance.
Yuri Faier was the author of the book About Myself, Music, and Ballet («О себе, о музыке, о балете»), Moscow, 1970.
He was awarded the title of People’s Artist of the USSR (1951) and received the Stalin Prize (1941, 1946, 1947, 1950).