Irena Orlov

Personal life

Irena Orlov was born in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia) to a family of Abram Isaakovich Rozhansky, a prominent Jewish trial lawyer. In 1960-1970s, Rozhansky actively participated as a defender in a number of political trials known as anti-Jewish trials of 1969-1975. The family was active in the cultural life and in the circles of the Leningrad underground artistic community. Irena Orlov was close to such figures as Alexei Khvostenko, Mikhnov-Voitenko, Alexander Knaifel. Following the publication of Abram Rozhansky's "Anti-Jewish Trials in the Soviet Union", Irena's staying in the USSR became problematic.

She was a friend of Leonid Aronzon,(1939–1970) and Elena Schwartz (alt. spelling: Schvarts)(1948–2010), Russian poets. Following the death of Leonid Aronzon, Irena was instrumental in arranging a secret transfer of the Aronzon's archive outside of the USSR. Later she became the keeper of the archive (till 1993).

She and poet Elena Schvarts made possible the first significant publication of L. Aronzon's collected poems in Israel ("Maler" publishers).

In 1993 she returned the archive to the poet's brother Vitaly Aronzon, whom she considered the poet's rightful heir after the death of his wife Rita Purishinskaya.

In 1960 - 1980 Irena was a close friend and supporter of Boris Ponizovsky (1930–1995) ru:Понизовский, Борис Юрьевич, a reformer and theorist of theater.

Irena was married to Henry (Genrikh) Orlov (1926–2007), a musicologist and philosopher, the author "A Tree of Music", a fundamental work on the philosophy and cultural aspects of music.

Professional life

Orlov was trained at School of Music of Leningrad Conservatory. One of her teachers was then famous and prolific pedagogue Marianna Friendling. Orlov showed interest in teaching piano with noticeable success at age 15, when she was still in high school. She entered Saint Petersburg Conservatory and graduated in 1970 and established her name as a free spirited and very efficient teacher of music. She taught at a children's school of music and performed in The Ensemble of Period Instruments under Andrey Boreyko.

In 1980 Orlov moved to Israel, where she continued teaching. She also developed musical therapy methods which she used as a therapist in psychiatric hospitals. She showed publicly the effectiveness of her musical therapy for patients with dementia and deep depression. In 1986 Orlov moved to the USA. She joined the faculty of the Levine School of Music in Washington, DC. For more than 20 years Orlov has produced students consistently winning in a variety of young musicians' competitions, many of whom continued their education in leading conservatories of music of the world, including Juilliard School, St. Petersburg Conservatory, Royal Conservatory of the Hague and many others. She enjoys considerable recognition from the faculty members and musicians associated with those schools.

Her notable former students include Edward Neeman, Ralitza Patcheva, Sam Post, Zak Sandler and Leo Svirsky.

Notable mentions and recognition

Irena Orlov is mentioned a number of times in connection with the L. Aronzon's poetry

Elena Schvarts dedicated her poem "David in Dance" to her.

In 2007 "Reaching Beyond", a documentary summarizing her unusual insight and skill in teaching music to children was produced by a group of enthusiasts.

A Russian website dedicated to learning English published a practice dialog in both English and Russian where the student is talking about Irena Orlov, his piano teacher.