Dmitri Kogan

Dmitri Pavlovich Kogan (Дмитрий Павлович Коган; October 27, 1978 – August 29, 2017) was a Russian violinist and an Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation.

Dmitri Kogan was born in Moscow, USSR, into a famous musical dynasty.

His grandfather, Leonid Kogan, was an outstanding violinist, his grandmother, Elizabeth Gilels – a famous violinist and a teacher, his father, Pavel Kogan, is a conductor, and his mother, Lyubov Kazinskaya, a pianist who graduated from the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music.

He began playing the violin at the age of 6 at the Central Music School of the Moscow State P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory.

From 1996 to 1999 Kogan was a student at the Moscow Conservatory (the class of I.S. Bezrodny) and almost at the same time (1996–2000) he was a student at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, studying with I.S. Bezrodny and Tuomas Haapanen.

At the age of 10 Dmitri performed for the first time accompanied by a symphony orchestra, and when he was 15 he played with an orchestra in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

Kogan made his debut in Great Britain and the US in 1997.

He regularly performed at the most prestigious concert halls of Europe, Asia, America, Australia, Middle East, the CIS and the Baltic countries.

Kogan participated at many prestigious music festivals around the world, such as the Corinthian Summer Festival (Austria), Menton Music Festival (France), Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), and Perth Festival (Scotland).

He also participated in the Chereshnevy Les Open-Art Festival, Russian Winter (Russkaya Zima) Festival, Music Kremlin Festival, Andrey Sakharov International Art Festival and many others in places like Athens, Vilnius, Shanghai, Ogden, Utah, and Helsinki.

Niccolò Paganini's cycle of 24 caprices, long considered impossible to perform, held a special place in Kogan's repertoire, which consisted mostly of great concertos for violin and orchestra.

Only a few select violinists are capable of performing the whole cycle.

In December 2002 the First Leonid Kogan International Festival took place with Dmitri being its organizer and artistic director.

From 2004 to 2005 Kogan was the general artistic director of Primorsk State Philharmonic Society.

Kogan was the founder and artistic director of the Annual International Days of High Music Festival that takes place in Vladivostok and since 2005 it has been also held on Sakhalin.

From September 2005 he was the chairman of the board of Regents of Sakhalin State Philharmonic Society.

In December 2007 Kogan founded and became the Head of the International Kogan Festival in Yekaterinburg.

On April 19, 2009, Kogan was the first violinist to play a concert for explorers at the North Pole.

On January 15, 2010, Kogan was awarded the honorary title of Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation.

In August 2010 he was elected as an Honorary Professor of the Athens Conservatoire.

In October 2010 Kogan became the chairman of the board of Regents of the Ural Music College.

The Kogan Fund for Support of Outstanding Cultural Projects was created in April 2011 by Kogan and a patron of arts, Chair of the AVS-group Holding Company, Valery Saveliev.

The public phase of the first project promoted by the Fund was Kogan's concert in the Pillar Hall of the House of the Unions on May 26, 2011.

He played five violins by Stradivari, Guarneri, Amati, Guadagnini and Vuillaume.

He continued the show, "Five Great Violins in One Concert", at the top concert venues in Russia and abroad.

The Robrecht violin, created in 1728 by Bartolomeo Giuseppe Antonio Guarneri (delGesù), a renowned luthier of Cremona, was purchased by the Fund and presented to Kogan in Milan on September 1, 2011.

He held the post of Artistic Director at the Samara State Philharmonic Hall in the period from 2011 to 2013.

The Kogan Fund for Support of Outstanding Cultural Projects was created in April 2011 thanks to efforts of Kogan and a patron of arts, Chair of the AVS-group Holding Company, Valery Saveliev.

The main goal of the Fund is the continued development of the world class charity and art patronage traditions of Russia.

The Fund intends to search for unique musical instruments and to have them restored by the best art conservators and then to hand them over to professional musicians.

Further, the Fund plans to help meet theneeds of musical schools and colleges, to find and support young talents.

Kogan was an Adviser on Cultural Affairs to the Governor of Chelyabinsk Oblast from 2011 to 2014.

In April 2012 Kogan chaired the board of regents at the Urals Mussorgsky State Conservatoire together with Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk.

In March 2012 Kogan became a confidant of Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation.

Kogan was an honorary professor of the Athens Conservatoire and the Urals State Conservatoire, Ulyanovsk State University, and chairman of the board of Regents of the Ural Musical College.

In January 2013, he performed it at the World Economic Forum in Davos in the presence of the Prime-Minister of Russia Dmitri Medvedev and representatives of the world's political and business elites.

From April 2013 onwards he chaired the International Musical Kremlin Festival that was founded by Nikolay Petrov, a prominent Russian pianist and Kogan's friend and mentor.

In 2015, Kogan presented a new project, accompanying his performance of The Four Seasons by Vivaldi and Astor Piazzolla with video projection.

Kogan released ten CDs in collaboration with Delos, Conforza, DV Classics and other record labels.

Kogan dedicated great effort to charity and supported campaigns for children and youth.