Tragic death of eminent pianist, 46

Friends are reporting the death from cancer last night of the concert pianist Dina Ugorskaja.

Raised in Leningrad by the modernist pianist Anatol Ugorski and the musicologist Maja Elik (they met while rehearsing the Soviet premiere of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire), Dina had an intensive music education until the family fled Russia after anti-semitic threats in 1990. They settled with great difficulty in Germany.

Dina, 16 at the time, studied at Detmold and went on to teach there, eventually becoming professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. She had a lively concert career and made her home in Munich.

Dina is survived by her father, her husband and her daughter.