Yakov Milstein

Yakov Isaakovich Milstein was a Soviet musicologist and pianist. He was born on 4 February 1911 in Voronezh, into a Jewish family. His father, Isaac Milstein, was a musical instrument master and teacher.

He first studied at the Voronezh Music College with M. D. Berlin-Pechnikova. From 1925 he lived in Moscow. In 1932 he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in the piano class of Konstantin Igumnov, and in 1935 he completed postgraduate studies there.

Because of an illness affecting his hands, Milstein was unable to pursue a concert career and had to devote himself to teaching and musical writing. From 1935 he taught piano at the Moscow Conservatory, where he became a professor in 1963. From the same year he also served as Igumnov's assistant until the latter's death in 1948.

Milstein also worked as an editor of piano works by Russian and Western European composers. In 1941 he defended his doctoral dissertation at the Moscow Conservatory on the subject “Franz Liszt and his pianism,” and in 1942 he received the degree of Doctor of Art Studies.

Among his students were Elizaveta Leonskaya, B. B. Bekhterev, M. V. Mdvani, and V. V. Sakharov. In 1975 he was elected an honorary member of the Ferenc Liszt Society in Budapest. He lived in Moscow and was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honour on 14 October 1966.

Yakov Milstein died on 4 December 1981 in Moscow and was buried at Vvedenskoye Cemetery. He is remembered as a major servant of music, especially through his scholarship, editorial work, and long teaching career.