Elena Bashkirova

Elena Dmitrievna Bashkirova (; born 1958) is a Russian-born Israeli classical pianist, chamber musician and musical director. She is the founder and artistic director of the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival and, since 2020, president of the Felix-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Stiftung in Leipzig.

Early life and education Bashkirova was born in Moscow into a musical family. Her father was the pianist and pedagogue Dmitri Bashkirov. She began formal study at the age of 15 in her father's class at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Together with violinist Gidon Kremer, with whom she had appeared as a duo partner, she left the Soviet Union in 1978 and settled in Paris.

Bashkirova's recent and documented European engagements include solo recitals and chamber appearances in Berlin, Tallinn, Naples, Wrocław, Hamburg, Lisbon, London, Vienna and Paris, as well as orchestral appearances in Romania, France, Switzerland and Israel. Her last seasons included a solo recital in the Chamber Music Hall of the Berliner Philharmonie, a performance at the Eesti Concert Piano Festival in Tallinn, a recital at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, a concert at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nayden Todorov The festival takes place annually in September and brings together international soloists and chamber musicians.

In 2012, Bashkirova established Intonations, a Berlin-based sister festival connected with the Jerusalem festival. Deutschlandfunk Kultur described Intonations as an offshoot of her Jerusalem chamber music festival and noted that its programmes bring together musicians invited by Bashkirova. The festival was originally held at the Jewish Museum Berlin and later moved to the Kühlhaus Berlin. Her complete recording of Antonín Dvořák's Poetic Tone Pictures, Op. 85, was released in 2020, and an album of Mozart sonatas and fantasies followed in 2022. She has also received an honorary doctorate from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Personal life Bashkirova has been married twice. Her first marriage was to Gidon Kremer. In 1988, she married conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim. Bashkirova and Barenboim had met in the early 1980s, while Barenboim was still married to Jacqueline du Pré. During the last years of du Pré's life, Barenboim and Bashkirova lived together in Paris. The couple has two sons, David Arthur Barenboim (born 1982), a manager-writer for hip-hop bands, and Michael Barenboim (born 1985), a classical violinist.