Elisabeth Leonskaja

Elisabeth Leonskaja (born 23 November 1945) is a Georgia-born naturalized Austrian pianist. She made an international career after she won the Enesco International Piano Competition in Bucharest in 1964, and has lived in Vienna since 1978.

Elisabeth Leonskaja
Leonskaja in 2012
Born	(1945-11-23) 23 November 1945 (age 79)
Occupation	Classical pianist
Website	www.leonskaja.com

Life and career

Leonskaja was born on 23 November 1945 to a family of Jewish and Polish origin living in Tbilisi,^[1][2] then the capital of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.

When Leonskaja was six and a half, her parents were able to buy her first upright piano. At 7, she passed the entrance exam of one of Tbilisi's sixty music schools.^[3] At 11, she gave her orchestral debut with Beethoven's Piano Concerto in C major, at 13 her first solo recital. At 14, she began an intense four-year period of study in secondary school with a new piano teacher from Kyiv. In 1964, Elisabeth Leonskaja won the Enesco International Piano Competition in Bucharest. The judges included the composer and conductor Aram Khachaturian and the pianist Arthur Rubinstein.^[4]

In 1964, Leonskaja began studies in the Moscow Conservatory. During her conservatory years she won prizes in the Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition in Paris and the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels.^[5]

Leonskaja left the Soviet Union in 1978 and has since then resided in Vienna.^[6] A notable recording of hers is of Edvard Grieg's arrangement for two pianos of Mozart's piano sonatas K. 545 and K. 533/494, accompanied by Sviatoslav Richter, with whom she built a close friendship and collaboration.^[7] She recorded many years for Teldec, now for German label MDG, and presently for several different labels including Warner, who have also re-released a number of recordings. She also gives many masterclasses.^[8]

Personal life

Leonskaja with the Finnish cellist Arto Noras and the Russian violinist Oleg Kagan in 1967

Leonskaja was married for a short time to the violinist Oleg Kagan.^[7]

Decorations and awards

• Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class (2005)^[9]
• Honorary citizen of Deutschlandsberg (1999)^[10]