Dear friends,
My beloved piano professor Vladimir Bochkarev passed away on 4 February this year in Montenegro at the age of 75. I am heartbroken. Vladimir left a tremendous musical legacy through his art and his students. He was the reason I became a pianist; he was the reason Musical Bridges was born 26 years ago.
To honor his memory, my husband Robert and I will sponsor a Vladimir Bochkarev Discretionary Award for Best Performance of a Work by a Russian Composer as a part of The Gurwitz International Piano Competition, starting in 2028.
Anya Grokhovski, DMA
CEO & Artistic Director
Musical Bridges Around the World
In Memoriam published by the University of Montenegro:
It is with deep regret and sadness that we inform the public that on February 4, 2024, Professor Vladimir Bochkarev, a prominent member of the University of Montenegro Music Academy and former dean, passed away. Professor Bochkarev dedicated his life to music and education, leaving an indelible mark on the lives of his students and colleagues. His dedication to music, teaching and inspiring approach to learning made him a beloved professor. His legacy will live on through the generations of musicians he taught and through the contribution he made to the development of the academic community.
Bochkarev graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory “Tchaikovsky” in the class of professor Lev Naumov, one of the most successful representatives of the piano school of the famous G. Neuhaus.
He is the laureate of the first prizes at numerous competitions in the USSR (1964, 1965, 1967) and the winner of the special diploma of the All-Union Competition ‘Tchaikovsky’ in 1969, which was awarded to him by the jury chaired by Emil Gilels. For twenty years, his pedagogical activity was connected to the Moscow State Academy of the Gnesins. Along with his teaching activities, he performed throughout the Soviet Union, Mongolia, Algeria, the USA, and Italy. Since 1992, he lived and worked in Montenegro as a piano teacher at the Music Academy in Cetinje. He was a member of the jury at international competitions in Belgrade and Niš (Serbia), Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Crotone (Italy). He held master courses in Moscow (for participants from the USA and Japan), Montenegro, the Czech Republic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the USA. His graduate students work in Europe, Asia, America, and Australia.