Lyubov Shishkhanova

Lyubov Bashirovna Shishkhanova was a Soviet and Russian organist and music educator. She was a soloist-organist at the Yaroslavl Philharmonic from 1974 to 2023 and a professor at the Organ and Harpsichord Department of the Moscow Conservatory from 2001 to 2023. She was awarded the title of People's Artist of Russia in 2006. Born in Karatau, Jambul Region, Kazakh SSR, she was of Ingush descent. Her father was a mining engineer who later became the director of the "Fosforit" mining and processing plant, and her mother was a chemist.

Shishkhanova's musical education began at the First Music School in Kuybyshev, where she studied piano under M. N. Rubakina, graduating in 1961. The same year, she entered the Central Music School at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, studying piano with S. L. Dizhur and graduating with a gold medal in 1966. She continued her studies at the Moscow Conservatory, graduating in 1972 from the piano class of V. I. Nosov and the organ and harpsichord class of L. I. Roizman. She undertook further postgraduate studies with Roizman and had an internship in 1970 in Czechoslovakia, attending advanced performance courses with professors J. Reinberger and Z. Růžičková.

Her pursuit of mastery extended to organ building; from 1975 to 1976, she trained as an organ master at the W. Sauer Orgelbau firm in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. Throughout her career, she actively participated in numerous international seminars and masterclasses. These included organ seminars in Pitsunda and Riga under L. Kremer (Germany) in the late 1980s, and seminars in Millstatt, Austria, with professors G. Litaize, M. Schneider, A. Roessler, H. Meister, and Guy Bovet in the early 1990s. She also attended seminars on modern organ music with Professor K.-M. Ziegler in Kassel, Germany, and with Professor L. Lohmann in St. Petersburg. For four years (1990–1994), she studied in Cologne with the distinguished organist and conductor, Professor Michael Schneider.

Shishkhanova made an immense contribution to the musical culture of Yaroslavl. In 1974, she was involved in the installation of the Sauer organ in the L. V. Sobinov Concert Hall. For many years, she conducted cycles of concert-lectures on organ music for schoolchildren at the Yaroslavl Philharmonic. She was the initiator, organizer, and artistic director of the L. I. Roizman International Organ Festival in Yaroslavl and the "Sretenie" festival of choral, bell, organ, and symphonic music. Her teaching career included positions at the Nizhny Novgorod State Glinka Conservatory (1998–2000) and the Moscow Conservatory, where she began teaching in 2001 and was appointed professor in 2020.

As a performer, Shishkhanova toured extensively throughout Russia, the CIS countries, Europe (Germany, Austria, Poland, Czechia, England, France), the USA, China, and Japan. She performed as a soloist and in ensembles with musicians such as violinist E. Chugaeva, soprano N. Gerasimova, and German oboist K. Schneider, as well as with chamber ensembles, orchestras, and choirs. A notable performance was at the festival in Manila, Philippines, in 2006, where she played the famous bamboo organ.

Her repertoire was vast, spanning five centuries of music from J.S. Bach and his predecessors to the 21st century. She was a dedicated champion of new music, premiering many works by contemporary composers. Several compositions were dedicated to her, including Yuri Butsko's "Great Organ Notebook," K. Nakajima's "Dialogue for Reader and Organ," S. Chebotarev's and V. Poltoratsky's Sonatas for Organ, and O. Komarnitsky's Partita for Violin and Organ.

Shishkhanova's discography includes albums such as "Western European Music on the Organ of the Graz Cathedral," "Three Centuries of German Organ Music" recorded at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Moscow, and a recording of Yuri Butsko's "Great Organ Notebook." She frequently recorded for radio stations like Orpheus, WDR, and Hessen-Rundfunk. Beyond performing, she was a prolific author of publications, an editor of sheet music, and a translator of foreign books and articles on organ art. She notably translated Hermann Meister's book "Musical Rhetoric: The Key to the Interpretation of the Works of J. S. Bach" from German into Russian.

She served on the jury of the Mikael Tariverdiev International Organist Competition in 2013 and 2015. Lyubov Shishkhanova passed away on November 17, 2023, in Moscow and was buried in Yaroslavl. Among her many accolades were the titles of Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1987) and People's Artist of Russia (2006), the "Organist of the Year" award (2022) for her lifetime contribution to the profession, and the Order of Saint Olga from the Russian Orthodox Church (2003) for her promotion of sacred music.

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