VITOLS, JOSEPH ), professor, Latvian poser and musician. For the last 3o years Vitols has played a large part in the musical life of Latvia. Although he studied and lived for a long time in St. Petersburg (from 1886-1918) as pro fessor of the composition classes of the local conservatory, he has always shown a very special interest in his native country. Al ready, during the summer of 1918, before the proclamation of Latvia's independence, Vitols came back and took over the administration of the Lettish opera. A year later (1919) he was given the office of rector of the musical conservatory of Riga, but still continued the supervision of the theory and composition classes. Besides his creative and teaching work Vitols has held,
both in Russia and Latvia, numerous posts where he has been able to make full use of his great musical ability. He has been member of the prize distributing committee, president of several musical committees in the Ministry of Education, musical critic, etc. He is director of the Latvian State Music Conservatory.