musical trivia post, the time Rachmaninoff donated money to Igor Sikorsky, inventor of the helicopter

http://www.sikorskyarchives.com/Igor_Sikorsky_&_Sergei_Rachmaninoff.php

HT Ribbon Farm
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2015/09/17/how-to-be-a-precious-snowflake/

My absolute favorite story of clod-snowflake relationships is that of Rachmaninoff and Sikorsky. The former, a wealthy and successful musician, gave the latter, a struggling inventor immigrant, a check for $5000. That eventually led to the perfection of the modern helicopter.

Read that again. A musician gave an engineer money to perfect the helicopter.

So in addition to having composed a gorgeous setting of the All-Night Vigil and the Liturgy of St. John Chrystostom and other musical works, here's something else you might not have heard of before about Rachmaninoff.