Elena Rostropovich

Elena Rostropovich is a pianist who was born in Moscow, Russia on June 22, 1958. She left Russia with her parents, cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich and soprano Galina Vishnevskaya in 1974.

She is an acclaimed musician and philanthropist whose work on behalf of the health and well-being of children in such diverse parts of the world as the post‑Soviet republics, the Near East and Western Europe has gained wide recognition.

She began to study piano at the age of 4 with her grandmother, Sofia, a talented pianist. At the age of 6 she entered the pre‑Conservatory Central Music School in Moscow where she continued to study piano with renowned piano teacher, Evgeny Timakin. Her first appearance as a soloist with orchestra was at the age of 11 in Yaroslavl, Russia. In 1974, her father and mother were forced to leave Russia with their two daughters for publicly defending and supporting the dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

In 1975, Elena entered the Juilliard School of Music in New York, graduating in only 3 years. She continued her studies in Vermont with Rudolf Serkin. At the same time, Elena began to perform as a soloist and as an accompanist of her father.

She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1980. As the sole accompanist of her father for seven years, Elena performed in such musical capitals as New York, Boston, Washington, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Jerusalem, and Rio de Janeiro. In 1978, she accompanied her father in concert at the White House for President and Mrs Jimmy Carter. This performance was broadcast live worldwide.

In 1989, she became the Vice-President of the 1st International Piano Competition “World Music Masters” in Paris, France. As a mother of four children she was unable to continue to travel with her father, and so she began to write her own compositions. A record of her work entitled Love without Reasons was released by EMI in 1990.

From 1997 until 2001, Elena was general director of the International Music Festival “Rencontres Musicales d’Evian” (France).

From 2001 until 2007, she managed the career of her father and also joined the Board of Directors of the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Foundation (RVF), based in Washington, DC, a charitable organization dedicated to modernizing healthcare for children throughout the world.

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Wikipedia