Bella Davidovich

Bella Davidovich initiated her piano studies at age six. Such swift mastery led to a public debut at nine, when she performed a Beethoven concerto. She entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1947 and received instruction from Konstantin Igumnov and Yakov Flier. First prize at the 1949 Chopin Competition in Warsaw launched a busy solo career throughout the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In 1962 she joined the Moscow Conservatory faculty as professor of piano. Her initial Western European engagement took place in the Netherlands in 1967, and Italian authorities granted her permission to tour their country in 1971. After her son, the noted violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky, defected to the United States in 1977, Soviet officials canceled all of her foreign bookings. She received exit permission herself in 1978 and acquired American citizenship six years later. Carnegie Hall hosted her American debut in 1979; soon she became a frequent soloist across the United States, Canada, and Europe, especially admired for her Romantic repertoire. A professorship at the Juilliard School began in 1983. In 1988 she and her son returned to Russia among the first emigrés invited to perform during Gorbachev’s Perestroika. Appearances as soloist have included the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She has also collaborated with the Borodin Quartet, Guarneri Quartet, and Tokyo String Quartet, and has served on the juries of the Queen Elisabeth and Chopin International Piano Competitions.