Lydia Mordkovitch (born Lydia Shtimerman) was a Soviet and British violinist and music educator. She was born in Saratov on April 30, 1944, and died in London on December 9, 2014.
After her family returned to Kishinev, she studied at the E. Coca Special Music School. She graduated from the Stolyarsky Music School in Odesa in 1962, then studied at the Odesa Conservatory and pursued postgraduate study at the Moscow Conservatory with David Oistrakh. From 1968 to 1970, she worked as an assistant in his class. In 1969, she placed fifth at the Long-Thibaud International Competition in Paris.
From 1970 to 1973, Mordkovitch lived and worked in Kishinev, teaching at the G. Muzicescu Institute of Arts. She moved to Israel in 1974. She made her British debut in 1979 with the Hallé Orchestra under John Barbirolli and settled in London in 1980. She later earned a PhD and taught violin at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1982, she made her first tour of the United States with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Georg Solti.
Her repertoire included Russian music of the 20th century. Her recordings included concertos by Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Kabalevsky, and Aram Khachaturian; sonatas by Nikolai Medtner, César Franck, Edvard Grieg, Carl Nielsen, Karol Szymanowski, and George Enescu; Ottorino Respighi and Arthur Bliss’s works for violin and orchestra; and Eugène Ysaÿe’s six sonatas for solo violin. She also performed the violin part in the 1973 film Bridges.
Organizations
- Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory
- Odessa National A. V. Nezhdanova Academy of Music
- Odessa State Music Lyceum named after Professor P. S. Stolyarsky
- Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts
- E. Coca Secondary Special Music School
- Royal Academy of Music
- Chicago Symphony Orchestra
- Royal Northern College of Music
- The Hallé