Bella Davidovich
Bella Davidovich ( Russian Белла Михайловна Давидович , Bella Michailowna Dawidowitsch ; born July 28, 1928 in Baku ) is an American pianist .
Life
Bella Davidovich was born in Baku, then part of the Soviet Union. She comes from a musical family. Her father, a surgeon, was an amateur musician, her mother and grandmother were professional musicians in the Baku Opera choir and orchestra.
Bella Davidovich received her first piano lessons at the conservatory in Baku when she was six. She gave her first concert in 1937. At the Moscow Conservatory , which she attended from 1939, she was taught by Konstantin Igumnov , and after his death by Jakow Flier . She completed her training in 1951 and was Flier's assistant until 1954. Her husband, the violinist Julian Sitkowetski (* 1925), died in 1958. From 1950 to 1978 she performed as a soloist with the State Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Philharmonic in the Soviet Union and in countries of the Eastern Bloc. From 1962 to 1978 she taught at the Moscow Conservatory.
In 1977 Bella Davidovich accompanied her son Dmitri Sitkowetski to his concert in Amsterdam. When he did not return to the Soviet Union, she was no longer allowed to perform abroad. In 1978 she emigrated to the United States and made her US debut in October 1979 at Carnegie Hall . From 1982 she also taught at the Juilliard School . In 1984 she received US citizenship. In 1988 she returned to the Soviet Union for the first time after emigrating. Since 1999 she has been teaching master classes at the Baku Conservatory.
Bella Davidovich has performed with conductors such as Charles Dutoit , Christoph Eschenbach , Neeme Järvi , Mstislaw Rostropowitsch and Edo de Waart .
She prefers to record works by Frédéric Chopin , but also by Joseph Haydn , Camille Saint-Saëns , Edvard Grieg , Sergei Prokofjew and other composers.
Prices
- 1949 First prize at the International Chopin Competition
Web links
- Literature by and about Bella Davidovich in the catalog of the German National Library
- Bella Davidovich at Allmusic (English)
- Biography at Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina, Poland (English)
- Biography at Azerbaijan International
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Davidovich, Bella |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Dawidowitsch, Bella Mikhailovna (full name); Davidovich, Bella Michajlovna (full name, transcribed in English); Давидович, Белла Михайловна (Russian spelling) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American pianist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 28, 1928 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Baku |