Klara Berkovich

Klara Yefimovna Berkovich (née Gordion, born 19 May 1928) is a Jewish Soviet and American violinist and master violin teacher who divided her career between the Soviet Union and the United States.

Klara Berkovich was born in Odessa, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union), the only child of Yefim Josefovich Gordion, a machinist, and Adele Raphaelovna Tesler, a teacher of Russian language and literature. A cosmopolitan city, Odessa was becoming a hotbed of Soviet violinists, thanks largely to Pyotr Stolyarsky and his disciples, who perfected a pedagogical method for teaching children from ages as young as four. Nathan Milstein, David Oistrakh, Boris Goldstein, Elizabeth Gilels, and Mikhail Fikhtengoltz would all emerge from Odessa, along with many others.

In 1934, Klara at age 7 began to study violin at Special Music School No. 1 with Viktor Karakes, a former student of Stolyarsky who in addition to teaching played in theatre orchestras. Alongside her musical studies, Klara pursued regular academic studies in the public schools of Odessa.

World War II threw Odessa into turmoil. When Klara was 13, the German army invaded the Ukrainian SSR and the Soviet Union was drawn into World War II on the side of the Allies. Needing soldiers, the Soviet army conscripted many ordinary citizens from Odessa, among them Yefim Gordion, Klara’s father, who was 49 years old. The family never saw him again.

As Nazi forces closed on Odessa, Klara and her mother—knowing the danger they faced as Jews—fled by ship on 12 August 1941, across the Black Sea. Seeking sanctuary, they wound up in the village of Kafkas, where they stayed for a year. During that time Klara taught her first violin student.

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