Elena Gilels was a Soviet and Russian pianist and pedagogue. She was born on 5 September 1948 in Moscow and died there on 17 June 1996. In 1991 she was awarded the title Honored Artist of the RSFSR.
She was the daughter of pianist Emil Gilels and composer Fariza Khutsistova. She studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Vera Gornostayeva and Yakov Flier, and then continued her training in the assistantship-internship program at the Leningrad Conservatory with Pavel Serebryakov.
From a young age, Gilels toured extensively in the USSR and abroad, including in Europe, the United States, and New Zealand. In 1969, while still a student, she appeared at Carnegie Hall performing Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto. Her repertoire was broad, ranging from Joseph Haydn to Sergei Prokofiev, though musicologists especially noted her performances of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's piano concertos.
She frequently performed in duo with her father, Emil Gilels. Together with him and the Vienna Philharmonic under Karl Bohm, she recorded Mozart's Concerto No. 10 for two pianos and orchestra; this recording was ranked among the finest Mozart recordings by Gramophone magazine. Critic Stephen Plaistow wrote that the musicians' physical kinship was mirrored in the quality and mutual understanding of their playing.
In 1970, Leningrad Television recorded Mozart's Concert Rondo for piano and orchestra performed by Gilels with the Leningrad Chamber Orchestra conducted by Lazar Gozman. In 1972 she won fifth prize at the International Competition in Montevideo. From 1974 to 1995 she worked as a soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic.
In 1989 she began teaching at the Moscow Conservatory. She was also a professor at the University of Ostrava in the Czech Republic. Elena Gilels died in 1996 from cancer and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery together with her parents.