Nina Dorliak

Nina Lvovna Dorliak (7 July 190817 May 1998) was a Russian soprano and a voice teacher at the Moscow Conservatory. She is known for forming a duo with pianist Sviatoslav Richter in recitals and recordings.

Life Nina Dorliak

Dorliak's career began in 1935 as a recitalist of art songs, accompanied by pianists such as Konstantin Igumnov, Alexander Goldenweiser, Maria Yudina, and Maria Grinberg. In 1947, she became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Among her best-known students were Galina Pisarenko, Erik Kurmangaliev, and Alla Ablaberdyeva. Dorliak gave many concerts in Russia and abroad, mainly in the art song repertoire, with a focus on Italian composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti, French composers such as Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Francis Poulenc, and Russian composers such as Mikhail Glinka, Modest Mussorgsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff. They performed together in concert and made recordings. but Michel Krielaars writes that Richter "and Dorliak never shared a bed and never married", and that Richter was gay and Dorliak a lesbian. She accompanied Richter on tours throughout his career for more than fifty years, supporting him until his last illness. He died on 1 August 1997. She died soon afterwards on 17 May 1998 at the age of 89.

Dorliak's legacy includes numerous recordings, some of them as a duo with Richter, with a repertoire that includes Schumann, Prokofiev, and Mussorgsky.