Oskar Davidovich Strok (Latvian. Oskars Stroks, 6 [18] January 1893, Dinaburg, Vitebsk Province, Russian Empire - 22 June 1975, Riga, Latvian SSR, USSR) was a Latvian composer and pianist, nicknamed the "Riga Tango King".
He studied piano at the St Petersburg Conservatoire under Nikolai Dubasov and worked as an accompanist on the stage and in the film industry.
The main years of Strok's life and work were spent in Riga, where he performed regular concerts in the famous dansing cabaret restaurant "Alhambra" (owned by businessman Georgs Berzins), where his creative development began, as well as in the cafe-restaurant "Otto Schwarz", known throughout Latvia for its legendary confectionery. From time to time Strok also lived in Paris (1925), Berlin (with interruptions in 1929-33, where he collaborated with local musicians and recorded on records), Harbin and Tokyo (in 1935 he toured and visited his brother Avsei), Alma-Ata (1941-1944), Riga (1945-1975), Moscow (1944-45, and also on visits later).
In the 30s of the 20th century Strok composed his famous tango-schlags, which instantly became famous in the world - "Black Eyes", "Tell Me Why", "Moon Rhapsody", and others. Many of his songs were performed by Pyotr Leshchenko. Accompanied Jewish singers, including the seven-year-old Riga singer Misha Aleksandrovich (later a synagogue cantor and a famous Soviet pop singer). He accompanied many pop stars at concerts, in particular the outstanding singer Nadezhda Plevitskaya. He also wrote songs to poems by Yiddish poets, including the melody of his tango-schlager "Blue Eyes", which became a famous song of the Jewish ghettos during the Holocaust under the title "Viachin zol ich gein".
During the Second World War, being a part of the front concert brigades of the active army, he created many patriotic songs (among them - "We Will Win", "Front Chauffeur"). During these war years Oskar Strok had joint tours with Klavdiya Shulzhenko. He performed as a composer, soloist and accompanist, took part in the competition for the creation of the National Anthem of the USSR and in the work on the music for the film "Kotovsky". In this film Strok starred in a cameo role as an accompanist in a White Guard cabaret.
After the war, Western-style light and dance music was banned. Oskars Strok - the author of over three hundred tangos and other musical works performed by the best orchestras in many countries - was expelled from the Union of Soviet Composers of Latvia in 1948, believing his music to be irrelevant. In the Soviet Union, new records of his songs and instrumental compositions began to be released only in the early 1970s.
On 22 June 1975, an ambulance came to Oskar Davydovich Strok. He, as always, joked, played the piano for the doctor, signed a record as a memento. And in a few minutes he died...
The composer was buried at the Shmerli Jewish cemetery in Riga, to the music of his tango "Sleep, my poor heart". The melody (musical notation) of the tango "Ah, these black eyes" is engraved on the monument.
In 1995, Raimond Pauls dedicated a song to Oskar Strok on verses by M. I. Tanich - "The King Composes a Tango". The first performer of the song was Laima Vaikule.
In 1997 the International Oskar Strok and Eddie Strok Society was proclaimed and in 2003 officially registered in Germany. The Oscar Strock and Eddie Rosner International Society was proclaimed in 1997 and officially registered in Germany in 2003 to preserve and promote the legacy of the two legendary musicians. Under the auspices of the Society, a new musical ensemble, The Oskar Strock & Eddie Rosner Orchestra, was formed in 2021 and performs at various venues, including Berlin's Konzerthaus on Gendarme Square.
In 2008 Oskar Strock was symbolically (posthumously) reinstated to the Latvian Composers' Union. This is an unprecedented fact in the organisation's history.
In 2012, the M. Chekhov Russian Theatre in Riga staged the play "Tango Between the Lines", dedicated to the composer (playwright Aleksejs Shcherbakovs), on the motifs of Oskars Strok's melodies.
On 6 January 2013, to mark the 120th anniversary of Oskars Strok, a memorial plaque in Latvian and English was unveiled in Riga (on the building at 50 Terbatas Street) (by Jānis Strupulis) - this was the house where O. Strok lived in 1945-1975. The composer Raimonds Pauls took part in the opening ceremony.
In 2014, the film "Taper" by Latvian director Ilona Bruvere, dedicated to Oskars Strok, was released.
In 2019, a monograph in Latvian (Oskars Stroks Tango karaļa mantojums - Oskars Stroks. The Legacy of the King of Tango) dedicated to the biography and creative heritage of Oskars Stroks was published in Riga. The author of the monograph is musicologist Jānis Kudiņš. The book covers in detail the life and creative work of Oskar Strok, and characterises the legend of the tango king in the context of culture in the past and today.
