Grigory Pekker

Grigory Ilyich Pekker was a distinguished Soviet cellist and music pedagogue. Born Girsh Ilyich Peker in Pavlograd, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, he began playing piano and cello in his childhood. At the age of 11, he entered the Petrograd Conservatory, studying under the French teacher L. Abbiate and later E. V. Wolf-Israel. During the Russian Civil War, he served in the Red Army and participated in battles on the Kakhovka bridgehead. Notably, in December 1923, he took part in the premiere performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's Trio Op. 8 while both were students at the conservatory.

After graduating in 1924, Pekker served as concertmaster and soloist for the Russo-Japanese Symphony Orchestra, touring China and Japan. In 1927, he moved to Germany to further his studies at the Leipzig Conservatory under Julius Klengel. He lived in Berlin from 1929, touring extensively across Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Poland. Following the rise of the Nazi regime, he returned to the Soviet Union in 1934.

Upon his return, Pekker taught cello at the Moscow Conservatory and performed frequently, showing a preference for Western composers. In 1938, he moved to Kiev, where he became a professor at the conservatory and performed with the Vuillaume Quartet from 1947 to 1951. In 1957, he relocated to Novosibirsk, where he taught at the Novosibirsk Conservatory until nearly the end of his life. In addition to his performance and teaching career, Pekker composed a number of works for cello, as well as concert arrangements and pedagogical editions.

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