YULIYA Album Brings Julia Weissberg Rimsky-Korsakov’s Music to Light 80 Years After Her Death

Over eight decades after her death during the Nazi Siege of Leningrad, composer Julia Weissberg Rimsky-Korsakov is finally being heard. On August 22, 2025, Azica Records released YULIYA, the first-ever album devoted to her music, featuring 15 songs unheard since the early 20th century.

Born in 1880 to a Jewish family in Orenburg, Russia, Weissberg Rimsky-Korsakov lived through one of the most turbulent eras in Russian history. She trained under leading composers, including her father-in-law, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and studied in Germany with Max Reger and Engelbert Humperdinck. Her music, published by the prestigious Belayev firm, blends Russian, Western European and Jewish artistic traditions.

As a Jewish composer, she faced systemic antisemitism in the Russian Empire and later under Stalin’s regime, which suppressed Jewish cultural expression. The devastation of World War II, culminating in her death in 1942 during the Siege of Leningrad, nearly erased her legacy. Now, decades later, her music has been brought back to life by soprano Sarah Moulton Faux, who discovered her manuscripts in the Russian State Library during the pandemic while researching forgotten female composers.

Collaborating with pianist Konstantin Soukhovetski and Grammy-winning producer Judith Sherman, she crafted an album that feels both intimate and expansive.

YULIYA is available for streaming on all major platforms and for purchase via Amazon.