Valentina Zograf-Plaksina

Valentina Yuryevna (Georgiyevna) Zograf-Plaksina (1866–1930) was a Russian and Soviet pianist, pedagogue, and public figure. She came from a distinguished family, being the sister of the zoologist and Moscow University professor Nikolai Yuryevich Zograf and the pianist Alexandra Yuryevna Zograf-Dulova. Another sister, Elizaveta Yuryevna, was a teacher at a private gymnasium. Zograf-Plaksina was also the great-aunt of the harpist Vera Dulova, who began her music studies under her guidance. She was born on November 7 (19), 1866, into the family of Yuri (Georgy) Khristoforovich Zograf.

In 1891, she graduated from the pedagogical department of the Moscow Conservatory, where she studied theory under Anton Arensky and Sergei Taneyev, and piano under Vasily Safonov. Although she was a talented pianist, a severe nervous illness prevented her from continuing a performance career, leading her to dedicate herself entirely to teaching.

In the year of her graduation, together with her husband Alexander Leontievich Plaksin (1864–1922), a violinist and musician in the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra, she founded the first public music school in Moscow. This institution is now known as the Academic Music College at the Moscow Conservatory. Serving as the director, Zograf-Plaksina also taught piano classes; among her early students was the young poet Marina Tsvetaeva.

Under her initiative, graduates of the Moscow Conservatory and musicians from the Bolshoi Theatre were invited to teach at the school, including singer V. S. Tyutyunnik, cellist P. A. Danilchenko, and double bassist P. A. Natsky. From 1921 to 1924, she served as a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. She died in 1930 in Moscow and was buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery.

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