André Kostelanetz (Russian: Андрей Костеланец, December 22, 1901, St. Petersburg, Russia - January 13, 1980)... was a popular orchestral music conductor and arranger, one of the pioneers of easy listening music. Kostelanetz escaped from the Bolshevik-Communist state in 1922 after the Russian Revolution.[citation needed] He arrived in the United States that year, and in the 1920s, conducted concerts for radio. In the 1930s, he began his own weekly show on CBS, André Kostelanetz Presents. [photo] He was the second husband of the soprano Lily Pons.
