Elizabeth Gilels

Biography

Elizabeth Gilels was born in Odessa into a Jewish family. Her father Grigory Gilels was a clerk at the sugar refinery, and her mother Esfira Gilels was a housewife. Elizabeth had multiple siblings, including children from previous marriages by both of her parents. Despite not being directly connected to a music scene, the family produced two outstanding musicians: first Emil Gilels and three years later Elizabeth herself.

"In Odessa, in spite of the hard times, the public enjoyed music very much. All attention was given to musically gifted children. In a modest Gilels’s flat in a poor and famous district of Odessa called Moldavanka there was a grand piano and already at the age of two little Emil showed interest in it touching keys and listening to them. He was also interested in other sounds: performance of brass bands, singing, tolling of bells." Little Yelizaveta, consequently was surrounded by music at an early age.

Elizabeth commenced her violin studies with famous pedagogue, Pyotr Stolyarsky whose star pupils included David Oistrakh, Nathan Milstein and Boris Goldstein. Later she studied with Abram Yampolsky (1890–1956) in Moscow. Early on in her career, she’d formed a youthful duo with her brother.

In 1937 she became a prizewinner of the Ysaÿe competition (later becoming Queen Elizabeth Competition) in Brussels. Stolyarsky's students caused a sensation at this competition as top prizes were garnered by David Oistrakh, Boris Goldshtein (Goldstein), Yelizaveta (Elizabeth) Gilels and Mikhail Fikhtengoltz.

"The results of the sessions created a profound impression: the Soviet school, with an assurance that bordered on arrogance, carried off all the prizes from the first down. The latter was awarded without the slightest discussion to the great David Oistrakh. Everyone else had to be content with crumbs; the Belgian violin school, though still a source of pride, failed, and its absence at the final was much commented on; Arthur Grumiaux and Carlo Van Neste, both young and inexperienced, were not able to convince the jury."

It wasn’t until after the WWII that she formed a duo with Leonid Kogan – their Bach's Double Concerto performance became famous, and they also managed to find and perform some of the more out-of-the-way pieces, as well as works dedicated to them, such as sonata by Weinberg.

From 1966 onwards she taught at the Moscow Conservatory, where she earned a title of professor in 1987. She was a consummate artist and had a great influence on her students. She has published a still popular study book of Scales & Double stops for violin.

Despite her significant achievements as a performer, outside of the USSR she was mostly known in a dual role as, first, a wife of the legendary Leonid Kogan and, second, a sister of the eminent Emil Gilels.

She died in Moscow on 13 March 2008, at the age of 88. She is survived by her children Pavel Kogan, Nina Kogan and her grandchildren Dmitry Kogan, Victoria Korchinskaya-Kogan & Daniel Milkis.

Gilels / Kogan Dynasty Continues

Pavel Kogan- son of celebratedRussian artists Leonid Kogan and Elisaveta Gilels, began his musical studies at Moscow's Central Music School and continued at the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied violin with the renowned pedagogue Yuri Yankelevich. In 1970, at the age of eighteen, he won First Prize and the Gold Medal at the Sibelius International Violin Competition in Helsinki. Before turning his full attention to the conductor's podium, he toured throughout Europe, Japan and the United States as a recitalist and guest violin soloist with many leading orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He is currently Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra.

Pavel's son - Dmitry Kogan was born in 1978 in Moscow. He began to play violin at the age of six at the Central Musical School of the Moscow Conservatory. In 1996, he began studying at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Igor Bezrodny. He has also studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under Bezrodny and Tuomas Haapanen. His career has taken him to such venues as the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Tchaikovsky Hall of the Moscow Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall and London's Royal Festival Hall. His repertoire includes all the major violin concertos.

Nina Kogan - daughter of two legendary violinists, Leonid Kogan and Elisaveta Gilels. She started studying the piano at the age of six, then attended the Central Music School for Gifted Children. Later she graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, receiving a D.M.A. with honors in the class of professor Flier. Nina Kogan is a top prize winner of the M.Long Piano Competition in Paris. She began concertizing at the age of 12. At 13 she started performing with her father, Leonid Kogan. Theirs grew into a unique collaboration that lasted almost 16 years until his death in 1982. During these years she was the only pianist he ever performed with. Nina Kogan performs a vast variety of chamber music and gives master classes all over the world. She has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMISony, Philips, Le Chant du Monde etc.

She has two children, daughter is a prizewinning pianist, Victoria Korchinskaya-Kogan and Daniel Milkis is an aspiring concert violinist.