Naum Lvovich Shtarkman (russian: Наум Львович Штаркман; 28 September 1927,

Zhitomir Zhytomyr ( uk, Жито́мир, translit=Zhytomyr ; russian: Жито́мир, Zhitomir ; pl, Żytomierz ; yi, זשיטאָמיר, Zhitomir; german: Schytomyr ) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the administrative ...

- 19 July 2006,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n classical pianist. He was a student of

Konstantin Igumnov Konstantin Nikolayevich Igumnov (russian: Константи́н Никола́евич Игу́мнов; , 1873 – March 24, 1948) was a Soviet and Russian pianist and pedagogue. People's Artist of the USSR (1946). Biography Igumnov studi ...

at the

Moscow Conservatory The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (russian: Московская государственная консерватория им. П. И. Чайковского, link=no) is a musical educational inst ...

. Shtarkman was awarded a 5th prize at the

V International Chopin Piano Competition The V International Chopin Piano Competition ( pl, V Międzynarodowy Konkurs Pianistyczny im. Fryderyka Chopina) was held from 21 February to 20 March 1955 in Warsaw. The competition was won by Adam Harasiewicz of Poland. The competition was he ...

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 The Vianna da Motta International Music Competition was first constituted in 1957 in Lisbon in honor of José Vianna da Motta by his disciple Sequeira Costa, who remains its president; this inaugural edition was won by Naum Shtarkman. The competi ...

. For several decades his concert career was restricted to the Soviet scene. Shtarkman was a professor at the

Gnessin State Musical College The Gnessin State Musical College (russian: link=no, Государственный музыкальный колледж имени Гнесиных) and Gnesins Russian Academy of Music (russian: Российская академия музык� ...

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 Moscow Conservatory in the class of the great pianist and teacher Konstantin Igumnov. He graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory in 1949, under the instruction of Constantine 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). 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 Article 121 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (homosexuality). He was arrested in

Kharkov Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality 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 School of Gnessin and only in 1987 became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. 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.

References

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