| ELENA RICHTER

ARTISTIC BIOGRAPHY

Elena RICHTER was born in Moscow, in 1938, in the family of musicians. Her grand-father, Johann Hermann Richter, was a master of musical instruments. He comes from Germany and his family has moved to Russia. The father, Rudolf Carl Richter, was a pianist and professor of music. The mother, Anna Richter, was also teacher of piano.
During the World War II the parents were sent in exited to Kazakhstan. Elena RICHTER got her primary musical education from parents in the city of Karaganda.
In 1957 she entered The Moscow State Conservatory, the class of an outstanding professor of the Russian pianist school - Heinrich Neuhaus. In 1962 she graduated from the conservatory with a first-class honours degree, and continued her education as a post-graduate of the Moscow Conservatory in the class of Stanislav Neuhaus (after the death of H.Neuhaus), while working as his assistant.
At present Elena RICHTER is a professor of piano at the Moscow Conservatory. Among the students, whom she taught piano playing as an assistant and professor, more then 30 people become prizewinners of different international competitions: Brigitte Angerer, Stanislav Bunin, Radu Lupu, Dina Joffe, Irina Chukovskaja, Yuji Kitano, Ilona Timtchenko, Irina Silivanova, Maxim Puryzhinskij, Ekaterina Richter, Sergej Golev, Nikolaj Saratovskij, at al.
Elena RICHTER has been leading master classes in Moscow, Germany, Japan, Yugoslavia, and Slovakia, which she is doing in present time also.
Elena RICHTER is giving concerts (Russia, Germany, and Japan). For a long time she performed together with a violoncellist Natalia Gutman. In Elena RICHTER repertoire there are works by J.S.Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev. In 1993 she made CDs recording of 10 sonatas by Scriabin, in 2000 - Sonatas by Chopin (No 3), Liszt and Fantasy by Scriabin.
Elena RICHTER's performing manner is characterized by acute emotional tension, eagerness for improvisation, variety of sounding, rhythmic and harmonic subtleness.
Pedagogical practice of Elena RICHTER, following traditions of the famous master H.Neuhaus, is marked by the desire to turn a lesson into a creative action, consideration psychological peculiarities of each student, associative ness and thorough work over the sound and other pianist problems.
Elena RICHTER has prepared books "Heinrich Neuhaus" (1992), and "Memoirs about H.Neuhaus" (2002), which was issued in Moscow.