Elena Gilels was the daughter of pianist Emil Gilels. From the 1970s, Emil Gilels performed in a duo with his daughter, pianist Elena Gilels, and made recordings with her of works by Mozart and Schubert, including for the West German label DGG.
Elena Gilels often performed in a duo with her father and recorded Mozart's Concerto No. 10 for two pianos and orchestra with him and the Vienna Philharmonic under Karl Bohm. In 1974, after Emil Gilels refused to sign letters against Andrei Sakharov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, his daughter Elena was struck from the list of those admitted to postgraduate study at the Moscow Conservatory.
