Natalia Vedernikova

Natalia Vedernikova, née Gureyeva, was a Soviet and Russian pianist and organist. She was born in Moscow on February 13, 1936, and died there on January 23, 2022. For many years she was associated with the Moscow Conservatory, where she later headed the Department of Organ and Harpsichord from 1995 to 2022 and became a professor in 1995.

Born into the family of an engineer, she began studying piano at the age of seven at the Nikolai Myaskovsky Children's Music School. From 1952 to 1956 she studied at the Academic Music College attached to the Moscow Conservatory in the class of Alexei Nikolayev. In 1962 she graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory with specializations in piano and organ, studying with Leonid Royzman, and in the same year began working there as Royzman's assistant. In 1968 she received her own independent organ class.

From 1962 to 2001, Vedernikova taught accompanist skills to pianists at the conservatory. When the organ class was reorganized into the Department of Organ and Harpsichord within the piano faculty in 1995, she was appointed head of the department. She trained a number of notable concert organists, among them Boris Romanov, Daniil Dianov, Sergey Cherepanov, Leonid Karev, Valentina Maslennikova, Vladimir Murtazin, Fyodor Stroganov, Olga Fadeyeva, and Marina Cheburkina.

As a performer, she appeared both in solo programs and in ensemble settings. Her concert career began in 1961, and she performed in many cities of Russia, in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and abroad, including Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Finland, France, Czechoslovakia, the former Yugoslavia, and Italy.

Her organ repertoire included works by Vincent Lübeck, Dieterich Buxtehude, François Couperin, Johann Sebastian Bach, Henry Purcell, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Antonio Vivaldi, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Max Reger, Jean Sibelius, Camille Saint-Saëns, Vincent d'Indy, César Franck, Dmitri Shostakovich, Paul Hindemith, Olivier Messiaen, Arvo Pärt, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valery Kikta, and Roman Ledenyov, among others. She recorded more than ten LPs and compact discs, including both solo and ensemble programs.

Vedernikova was awarded the title Honored Artist of the Russian Federation in 1993 and Honored Worker of the Arts of the Russian Federation in 2005. She also served on the jury of international organ competitions, acting as chair of the jury in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2005. In 2008 she was a reviewer for the work by T. A. Zenaishvili on registration and articulation in Johann Pachelbel's organ compositions.

She often performed in concerts with her husband, the singer and Bolshoi Theatre soloist Alexander Vedernikov. She was buried beside him at the Miusskoye Cemetery in Moscow.