Wladimir Selinsky (b. Kiev, Russia, Feb. 15, 1910; d. New York City, Sept. 6, 1984) was born into a musical family. He was raised in Berlin and was a child prodigy violinist, performing and conducting at an early age. His family immigrated to the United States in 1925. Almost immediately Selinsky won a scholarship to study at the Institute for Musical Art (Julliard). He originally planned to be a concert violinist, but after his father fell ill Selinksy was forced to find work on Broadway as a concert master and assistant conductor. He also performed in various orchestras conducted by Bruno Walter, Leopold Stokowski, and Pierre Monteux.
In the 1930's, Selinsky began an active career as a composer and conductor for radio shows produced by the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC). He worked with Helen Hayes on two dramatic anthology programs, Textron Theatre and Helen Hayes Theatre, collaborating with Hayes to create the background music for adaptations of plays by such authors as Sinclair Lewis and Thornton Wilder.
Selinsky also worked on educational programs sponsored by National Association of Educational Broadcasters (N.A.E.B.), including The Jeffersonian Heritage (featuring Claude Raines) and People Under Communism, and also worked on programs for the Voice of America. Throughout the 1940's, Selinsky also had his own NBC radio program, Strings In Swingtime, which featured his own string quartet and orchestra. He recorded a number of violin pieces for Columbia Records, and composed and conducted music for CBS and NBC radio auditions and a radio and television workshop sponsored by the Ford Foundation in 1957. He also wrote stock film music under the pseudonym “Ward Sills” for the company Video Moods, Inc., some of which was used in the famed Ed Wood film Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959).
With the rise of television and the subsequent decline of network radio programs in the mid-1950's, Selinsky's career shifted to that medium, where he worked for the remainder of his career. The programs he worked on included dramatic anthologies such as Du Pont Show of the Week, Kraft Television Theatre, Lux Video Theatre, and U. S. Steel Hour ; and several television movies in the 1970s and 80s, including Forbidden City, The Arthur Peach Story, Miles To Go Before I Sleep and Family Reunion (featuring Bette Davis). Selinsky died of heart failure at the age of 74.
From the guide to the Wladimir Selinsky papers, 1941-1981, (The New York Public Library. Music Division.)
