Eduard Grach is a Soviet and Russian violinist, violist, and conductor. He was born on 19 December 1930 in Odessa, USSR. He studied from 1936 at the special boarding music school for gifted children of the violin pedagogue Pyotr Stolyarsky in Odessa, where his first teacher was B. Z. Mordkovich. During the war he continued his education in Novosibirsk under I. A. Gutman.
From 1944 to 1948 he studied at the Central Music School attached to the Moscow Conservatory, from 1948 to 1953 at the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory, and from 1953 to 1958 in postgraduate study there. From 1944 to 1956 he trained with Abram Yampolsky in the school and conservatory, and after Yampolsky's death with David Oistrakh. On 13 July 1944 in Novosibirsk he gave his first solo concert.
Grach began his concert career as a violinist in 1949. From 1953 he was a soloist of the All-Russian Touring and Concert Association, from 1965 of Mosconcert, and from 1975 of the Moscow Philharmonic. In 1964 he joined a piano trio with Evgeny Malinin and Natalia Shakhovskaya. In 1979 he made his conducting debut, leading the Chamber Orchestra of the Mari ASSR in a performance of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. In 1980 he began performing in concert as a violist.
Since 1990 he has been the organizer, artistic director, and conductor of the Moskovia Chamber Orchestra of the Moscow Conservatory. The orchestra first appeared on stage at a jubilee concert marking the 100th anniversary of Abram Yampolsky's birth. Its repertoire includes classical works by foreign and Soviet composers. Grach has toured abroad extensively and is also known as a chamber performer.
Since 1989 he has taught at the violin department of the Moscow Conservatory, and since 1990 he has been a professor there; in 1995-1998 and again from 2007 he served as head of the violin department. His students include prize-winners of many international competitions. He has given master classes in Moscow, other Russian cities, and many countries abroad, and has served on juries and in leadership roles for numerous international violin competitions.
His repertoire includes more than 700 works. He was the first performer of more than 50 works for violin and viola and became the first interpreter of many compositions by contemporary authors. He performed with leading Soviet and foreign orchestras under prominent conductors and made more than 100 records.
Among his distinctions are prizes at the 2nd International Festival of Youth and Students in Budapest in 1949, the Marguerite Long and Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris in 1955, and the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1962. He was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1991, after earlier receiving the titles Honored Artist of the RSFSR and People's Artist of the RSFSR. He also received major Russian state awards, including several classes of the Order for Merit to the Fatherland and the Order of Honour.
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