Naum Lvovich Shtarkman (28 September 192719 July 2006) was a Soviet and Russian classical pianist.

Career

Born in

Zhytomyr Zhytomyr ( ; see #Names, below for other names) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the Capital city, administrative center of Zhytomyr Oblast (Oblast, province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding ...

, Shtarkman was a student of Konstantin Igumnov at the

Moscow Conservatory The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory () is a higher musical educational institution located in Moscow, Russia. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in musical performance and musical research. Th ...

. Shtarkman was awarded a 5th prize at the V International Chopin Piano Competition and, most notably, attained the Bronze Medal at the inaugural edition of the

Tchaikovsky Competition The International Tchaikovsky Competition is a classical music competition held every four years in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia, for pianists, violinists, and cellists between 16 and 32 years of age and singers between 19 and 32 years of ...

. He had previously won the 1st place at Vianna da Motta International Music Competition. For several decades his concert career was restricted to the Soviet scene. Shtarkman was a professor at the Gnessin State Musical College and the

. The first concert with an orchestra, Mendelssohn concerto, he has played at age 11. Incredibly quickly, a year later, he gave a solo concert at the Great Hall of the Conservatory, a program which consisted of works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt. In 1944 he began studying at the

in the class of the great pianist and teacher Konstantin Igumnov. He graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory in 1949, under the instruction of Konstantin Igumnov (Igumnov died in 1948, but Naum Shtarkman refused to finish training with another teacher, and was preparing for graduation without a formal mentor, informal consultation with

Sviatoslav Richter Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter ( – August 1, 1997) was a Soviet and Russian classical pianist. He is regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time,Great Pianists of the 20th Century and has been praised for the "depth of his interpreta ...

). In the 1950s he participated in various international competitions, becoming, in particular, the first winner of the International Piano Competition, named Vianna da Motta (Lisbon, 1957) and received the third prize of the First International Tchaikovsky Competition (1958). However, shortly thereafter, Shtarkman was arrested and convicted under of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (homosexuality). He was arrested in

Kharkov Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

, hours before he was scheduled to perform at a factory, as a special performance. Despite the brevity of the incarceration (8 years), this has totally shattered his concert career: for years Shtarkman was allowed only to perform in the far off provinces or in the secondary concert halls. The arrest had also become an impediment to educational activities of Shtarkman: from 1969 he freelanced unofficially at the Gnessin State Musical College and only in 1987 became a professor at the

. After that he began to perform in many countries around the world. Since 1993, Shtarkman was the permanent chairman of the jury of the International Competition of Pianists named after Igumnov, ongoing in

Lipetsk Lipetsk (, ), also Romanization of Russian, romanized as Lipeck, is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Lipetsk Oblast, Russia, located on the banks of the Voronezh (river), Voronezh River in the Do ...

. He died in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

Notes

References

Fryderyk Chopin Information Centre
1927 births 2006 deaths Musicians from Zhytomyr Prize-winners of the International Chopin Piano Competition Russian male classical pianists Russian Jews Soviet Jews Ukrainian classical pianists Jewish Ukrainian musicians 20th-century Russian classical pianists Jewish classical pianists 20th-century Russian male musicians Moscow Conservatory alumni {{Ukraine-classical-pianist-stub