Tune in Today: A Chemist on Broadway

Alexander Borodin’s musical avocation produced themes that still echo from concert halls to Broadway.

A Kazakh man in the steppe of Kazakhstan, playing and singing with a dombra in his hands. Alex Buzurnyuk/Shutterstock

True story:  Once long ago, in music school, I exclaimed with undergrad enthusiasm to a chemistry major friend, “I’ve just heard the most amazing symphonic poem, written by a Russian composer named Alexander Borodin!”

My friend did a double take. “No, no, no. Alexander Borodin was a Russian chemist, not a composer.”