Rosa Tamarkina

Who was Rosa Tamarkina?

Rosa Tamarkina was a Soviet pianist who won second prize in the third International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.

Tamarkina, born in Kiev, began learning piano as a very young child. She was enrolled for the children’s section of the Kiev Conservatory where, for five years, her teacher was Nikolai Goldenberg.

Between 1932 and 1935 she was a student in the special children’s section at the Moscow Conservatory. She completed the higher course at the Conservatoire in 1940, as a graduate of Alexander Goldenweiser’s piano class. She continued her studies with Goldenweiser and later with Konstantin Igumnov.

Tamarkina started appearing in public at the age of 15, astounding listeners and critics with the maturity of her interpretation, temperament and virtuosity. From 1936, she developed her concert career within Russia. Regardless of whether she would play Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff or especially Chopin, her grasp of the work was apt, full of noble simplicity, charm and natural poetry.

Tamarkina took part in the Chopin Competition at the age of 17. Already after Stage 1 it was clear that she was in the running for a prize.