Naum Shtarkman was a Soviet and Russian pianist and music teacher. He was a professor at the Moscow Conservatory from 1987, an Honored Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1990, and a People's Artist of the Russian Federation from 1996. He was widely recognized as an interpreter of the Romantic and post-Romantic repertoire, above all the works of Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff.
Born in Zhytomyr, Shtarkman gave his first performance with orchestra at the age of eleven, playing a concerto by Mendelssohn. Only a year later he gave a solo recital in the Great Hall of the Conservatory, with a program consisting of works by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, and Liszt. In 1944 he began studies at the Moscow Conservatory in the class of the great pianist and teacher Konstantin Igumnov.
He graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory in 1949 as a student of Konstantin Igumnov. Igumnov had died in 1948, but Shtarkman refused to complete his studies with another teacher and prepared for graduation without a formal mentor.
In the 1950s he took part in various international competitions, for all of which he was prepared by Maria Grinberg. He became, in particular, the first winner of the Vianna da Motta International Piano Competition in Lisbon in 1957, and received third prize at the First International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958.
Soon afterward, however, Shtarkman was arrested and convicted for same-sex relations. Although his imprisonment was brief, it completely destroyed his concert career: for many years he was allowed to perform only in the provinces or in secondary halls. This also hindered his teaching career. From 1969 he taught part-time at the Gnessin School, and only in 1987 did he become a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. After that he began once again to perform in many countries around the world.
From 1993, Shtarkman was the permanent chairman of the jury of the Igumnov International Piano Competition held in Lipetsk. He was the father of the pianist Alexander Shtarkman.
Among his honors were the Order of Honour in 2001, the Gold Cross of Merit of Poland in 2003, the title People's Artist of the Russian Federation in 1996, and Honored Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1990. He died in Moscow and was buried at Vostryakovskoye Cemetery.
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