Gregory Haimovsky

Who is Gregory Haimovsky?

Gregory Haimovsky is a pianist, writer, and pedagogue. He graduated from Moscow Conservatory in 1950. In the era of Stalin's anti-Semitism, like the fate of many of his contemporaries-musicians, Haimovsky’s destiny as a performer was thwarted. Immediately after his graduation concert, despite the formal characterization of the conservatory’s administration noting him as an "extremely gifted pianist, outstanding performing abilities ...," he was kicked out of Moscow by the communist regime to Russia’s remote provinces, where, except for a short period of creative work in Nizhny Novgorod Conservatory, he spent 16 years isolated from concert stages. However, in 1966 Haimovsky returned to Moscow and entered the mainstream of the capital's musical life as a pianist and writer on music and musicians.

An expert on French music in particular, Haimovsky was the first to bring to Russian musical culture the works of Olivier Messiaen. From 1966-1972 as a soloist and in collaboration with the best musicians of the capital, Haimovsky premiered Messiaen’s most famous works for the USSR.