Viktoria Mullova

Viktoria Yurievna Mullova (; born 27 November 1959) is a Russian-born British violinist.

Biography and early career Mullova was born in Zhukovsky, 45 km from Moscow, in Soviet Russia. At the age of three, she was encouraged to start her violin training by her father Yuri Mullov, a Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute physicist and engineer. After studying at the and at the Moscow Conservatory under Leonid Kogan, she won first prize at the 1980 International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki and the gold medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1982. She remembered the whole experience of the Soviet quasi-religious state-sponsored musical education as an overly stressful nightmare full of hypocrisy: "Naturally, I have never believed in communism. But everything was a play. I knew I wanted to leave, and I was pretending to be a naive girl".

Defection During a tour of Finland in 1983, Mullova and her lover, Vakhtang Jordania, who posed as her accompanist so they could defect together, left the hotel in Kuusamo, after Jordania told the KGB officer who was watching them that Mullova was too sick from drinking to attend the afterparty. The Stradivari violin owned by the Soviet Union was left behind on the hotel bed. YLE journalist Jyrki Koulumies, accompanied by photographer Caj Sundman, drove them in a rented car across the border via Haparanda to Luleå, Sweden from where they flew to Stockholm.

At that time, the Swedish police treated the young, on-the-run musicians just like any other political defectors from the Eastern Bloc: they suggested that the couple stay in a safehouse over the weekend until the American Embassy opened so they could apply for political asylum upon relocation. one of the finest makers of modern bows, a Dodd and a Voirin.

Personal life Mullova currently lives in Holland Park, London, England, with her husband, cellist Matthew Barley, and three children: the jazz bassist Misha Mullov-Abbado, from her relationship with conductor and pianist Claudio Abbado; Katia, from her relationship with violinist Alan Brind; and Nadia, who is a dancer in the Royal Ballet, from her marriage to Barley.

Selected discography Beethoven Violin Sonatas Nos. 3, 9 (Onyx 4050). With Kristian Bezuidenhout; 2010 JS Bach Sonatas & Partitas for violin solo (Onyx 4040); 2009 JS Bach Sonatas for violin and harpsichord (Onyx 4020). With Ottavio Dantone; 2007 Vivaldi 5 violin concertos (Onyx 4001). With Il Giardino Armonico; 2005 Beethoven and Mendelssohn Violin Concertos (Philips, 473 872–2). With Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/John Eliot Gardiner; 2003 Mozart: Violin Concertos Nos. 1, 3-4 (Philips, 470 292). With Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; 2002 Through the Looking Glass (Philips, 464 184–2). With Matthew Barley and Between the Notes; 2000 Bartók and Stravinsky Violin Concertos (Philips, 456 542–2). With Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen; 1997 Brahms Violin Sonatas (Philips, 446 709–2). With pianist Piotr Anderszewski; 1997 Tchaikovsky and Sibelius Violin Concertos(Philips 416 821–2) Boston Symphony Orchestra/Seiji Ozawa; 1985