Leokadiya Kashperova

Leokadiya Alexandrovna Kashperova was a Russian and Soviet pianist, composer, and music teacher. Born in Lyubim, Yaroslavl Governorate, she graduated as an external student from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1893. She studied piano under Anton Rubinstein from 1888 to 1891 and composition with Nikolai Solovyov. In 1894, she conducted her own overture at the Conservatory. Kashperova gained recognition as a concert pianist, receiving praise from figures such as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and César Cui. She performed as a soloist and in ensembles, notably in a string trio with Leopold Auer and Alexander Verzhbilovich, and premiered works by Mily Balakirev and Alexander Glazunov.

She is particularly noted for being the piano teacher of Igor Stravinsky starting in December 1899. While Stravinsky later described her aesthetic views as academically conservative and noted her resistance to Wagner and Rimsky-Korsakov, he acknowledged that she significantly improved his piano technique. Stravinsky recalled studying Mendelssohn, Clementi, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann with her, while Chopin was forbidden. British musicologist Graham Griffiths suggests that her strict prohibition on the use of pedals may have influenced Stravinsky's dry, clear style and that she played a role in the genesis of his Neoclassicism. She was considered by Griffiths to be the "first world-class Russian female composer," though her reputation was long overshadowed by Stravinsky's characterization of her.

Another notable student was Alexander Tcherepnin, who remembered her with gratitude. In 1918, Kashperova moved to Rostov-on-Don with her husband, the revolutionary S. V. Andropov, whom she had met in 1916 while giving him piano lessons. She taught at the conservatory there before moving to Moscow in 1922. Throughout her life, she composed music, including a Symphony (1905), an overture, the cantata Orvasi, a piano concerto, and chamber works. However, her compositions were rarely published or performed during her lifetime and remained largely unknown until a recent resurgence of interest.

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