Вера Духовская

Vera Iosifovna Dukhovskaya (1903—1982) is a Russian chamber singer, lyric-coloratura soprano. In 1923, Vera Dukhovskaya graduated from the Moscow Philharmonic School (later transformed into GITIS) in vocal class and then arrived in Petrograd, where, on the advice of Anatoly Lunacharsky, she began performing in an ensemble with pianist Mikhail Bikhter. From November 1924 to January 1931, in the Small Philharmonic Hall (it was then located in the current Beethoven Foyer of the BZF), musicians gave seven concerts with perfectly arranged programs: these were Russian romances - from Glinka to Stravinsky, "The Musical Creativity of a Russian Woman", where the vocal lyrics by Elizaveta Kochubey, Anna Esipova, Lyubov Strikher, Valentina Ramm, Yulia Veisberg, "The Origins of the French Romance" - from the 13th century to the songs of the French Revolution, were performed. © Archive of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. D. D. Shostakovich In 1936, Vera Dukhovskaya returned to Moscow, became a soloist of the All-Union Touring and Concert Association, but did not lose contact with the Leningrad Philharmonic. In the winter of 1937, from the Philharmonic Concert Bureau, she gives two solo concerts in the Chapel, accompanied by the Moscow pianist Vladimir Donato (real name Natan Shulman, 1906-1983), who received his pseudonym under funny circumstances from Sergei Yesenin himself. But Vera Dukhovskaya gives her first and only solo concert in the Great Hall in March 1938, accompanied by Sofia Davydova. Her performance with the Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kirill Kondrashin will also be single: on November 12, 1938, she will perform Alexandrov's "Children's Songs". Dukhovskaya will appear on the stage of the Great Hall several more times in combined, more often daytime, concerts for the target audience with the Soviet repertoire. The performer of the piano part is not listed in these programs. But, most likely, it was Sofya Davydova: in February 1941, Vera Dukhovskaya will take part in the anniversary program dedicated to the 45th anniversary of the pianist's artistic activity, to her accompaniment in October 1939 she will give a solo concert from Tchaikovsky's romances in the Glazunov Conservatory Hall ( at that time it was one of the chamber venues of the Philharmonic), on April 27, 1943, they will perform together in Novosibirsk, where the Philharmonic was evacuated during the war. In the same place, in February 1943, Dukhovskaya's solo concert with pianist Pavel Waldgardt will take place. After the war, Vera Dukhovskaya did not come to Leningrad with concerts. In 1948, she left her concert career and until 1957 taught at the Musical College. Ippolitov-Ivanov.