Natalia Pogozheva
Natalia Pogozheva (3 September 1834 – 30 July 1856) was a Russian pianist, singer and music teacher. She was the fourth daughter of Vasily Pogozhev, a major engineer in the Department of Communications, and Yevdokiya Nekrasova, and the younger sister of the musician Vera Pogozheva. Born at the rural settlement of Pereputye in Pskov Governorate, she showed exceptional dramatic and musical ability from childhood, alongside her sister.
The sisters recited poetry and scenes from dramatic works, displayed an unusually strong musical memory, and reproduced melodies by ear. On the advice of the writers Nestor Kukolnik, Vladimir Benediktov, Yevhen Hrebinka and P. Volkov, their father arranged formal musical training for them. They studied first with M. Rosenthal, then with F. Sieboldt and Karl Vollweiler. By the ages of nine and ten, they were performing with orchestral accompaniment, and on 28 March 1844 they gave their first public concert, benefiting the Second Vasilyevsky Island children's shelter. Contemporary newspapers described the Pogozhev sisters as a “musical miracle.”
In 1847 Pogozheva travelled with her father and sister to the Leipzig Conservatory. She studied with Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Ignaz Moscheles, took counterpoint lessons from Gade, Richter and Hauptmann, and studied accompanied performance with Ferdinand David. Within six months of arriving in Leipzig, the sisters appeared in a public concert attended by the King of Saxony and later performed at the Saxe-Weimar court. They completed the conservatory's two-year course in one year and three months, receiving diplomas after a public examination in 1848.
After returning from abroad, Pogozheva and her sister performed successfully at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on 8 and 10 October 1848. They also appeared with the Symphony Society and gave concerts in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kostroma, Vologda and Staraya Russa. In 1852, Pogozheva also began appearing as a singer, studying singing in St. Petersburg with de-Merin and in Moscow with Henriette Nissen-Saloman.
Pogozheva left several compositions, including two songs without words, a waltz based on Russian songs, and a notebook of musical exercises in different styles. With Vera, she wrote “Music in All Its Manifestations,” published in 1850 and reprinted in 1875. She learned English and Italian and planned to travel to Italy to continue her vocal studies. Shortly before her death, she taught music at the Catherine and Elizabeth Institutes in Moscow; Vera took over her pupils after her death.
Pogozheva died in Staraya Russa on 30 July 1856 from a nervous disorder and tuberculosis. She was buried at the Transfiguration Monastery in Staraya Russa.