Mikhail Bank
Mikhail Bank (1929–2013) was a Soviet and Russian pianist, conductor, and music teacher. He graduated in 1951 from the Leningrad State Conservatory, where he studied with Professor Samari Savshinsky.
Bank worked at the Bolshoi Theatre of the USSR from 1960 to 1963 and from 1973 to 1978, taking part in the production of several ballets. He also worked with leading opera performers, including Ivan Kozlovsky, Lyudmila Myasnikova, and Boris Rudenko. As a concert pianist and accompanist, he took part in more than 15 international competitions and performed with many visiting artists in the USSR.
In 1958, he received a second-degree diploma at the All-Union Variety Artists Competition. From 1968 to 1978, he taught concert-accompaniment skills at the Moscow State Conservatory. His repertoire included works by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian, and George Gershwin, which he performed with leading conductors and orchestras.
Bank was chief conductor of the National Ballet of Cuba from 1967 to 1968 and of the State Ballet Theatre of the USSR from 1977 to 1979. He performed with ballet artists including Maya Plisetskaya and Olga Lepeshinskaya, and gave concerts in more than 60 countries. He organized and conducted the All-Union Stars of Soviet Ballet festival and served as artistic director of the Sergei Prokofiev Festival in Sontsivka, the composer’s birthplace. He also performed as a soloist with Yuri Bashmet and his orchestra, including in several Russian premieres.
Bank was named Honored Artist of the RSFSR in 1971 and People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1990. He was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest performing pianist. He died in Moscow in 2013 and was buried at Troyekurovskoye Cemetery.