Valentina Kameníková ''nee'' Valentine Mikhaylovna Wax (20 December 1930 in

Odessa Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

– 29 November 1989) was a Czech

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

and

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

music teacher, respectively. She came from a musical family. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in 1941, due to her Jewish origin she was evacuated to

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

, studying and playing the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, first in Odessa at a local music school, then at the Odessa Conservatory, and later 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 ...

under Prof.

Heinrich Neuhaus Heinrich Gustav Neuhaus ( pl, Henryk (Harry) Neuhaus, russian: Ге́нрих Густа́вович Нейга́уз, Genrikh Gustavovič Nejgauz, 10 October 1964) was a Russian-born pianist and teacher of German and Polish extraction. Part of ...

. In 1954 she married, and in 1957 moved with her family to

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. From 1959 to 1961, she undertook postgraduate studies in piano at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts under Prof.

František Rauch František Rauch (4 February 1910 – 23 September 1996) was a Czechoslovak pianist and music teacher. Life and career Born in Plzeň, the son of a music instrument dealer, Rauch attended a business school in Plzeň before studying piano at th ...

. Starting in 1963 she taught at the

Prague Conservatory The Prague Conservatory or Prague Conservatoire ( cs, Pražská konzervatoř) is a music school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1808. Currently, Prague Conservatory offers four or six year study courses, which can be compared to the level ...

, and in 1970, was worked as a

lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. In 1976, she was a jury member for the Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition."Winners, Juries, Orchestras and Guest Artists"
Santander Piano Competition She was a notable classical interpreter of Russian music with superb piano technique, and was highly acclaimed by critics. She eventually left a legacy of about fifty recordings.

References

External links

What are you

Ivan Klansky remembers Valentina Kameníková

Pages in English on "Classic Today.com '
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kamenikova, Valentina Czech pianists Czech women pianists 1930 births 1989 deaths 20th-century pianists Jewish classical pianists 20th-century women pianists Academic staff of the Prague Conservatory Moscow Conservatory alumni Academy of Performing Arts in Prague alumni