Gregor Piatigorsky

Gregor Piatigorsky (17 April 1903 – 6 August 1976) was a cellist born in Ekaterinoslav, Ukraine, who rose from impoverished origins to become one of the twentieth century's preeminent virtuosos on the instrument, renowned for his orchestral, solo, chamber, and teaching contributions.

Beginning his professional career at age eight in local venues, Piatigorsky entered the Moscow Conservatory at nine and secured the principal cello position with the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra by fifteen amid the Russian Revolution's upheavals. He escaped Soviet Russia in 1921, studied briefly in Leipzig, and at twenty-one joined the Berlin Philharmonic as principal cellist under Wilhelm Furtwängler, from which he transitioned to a full-time solo career in the late 1920s.

Gregor Piatigorsky was born in 1903 in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipro, Ukraine), then part of the Russian Empire. His family resided in a modest, peasant-like house lacking running water, with an outhouse in the yard, situated near the steppe and the Dnieper River. The household endured hardships, including pogroms that forced the family to hide in a cellar while their home sustained damage, reflecting the precarious conditions for Jewish families in the region at the time.

They had two children: a daughter, Jephta, born in France in 1937, and a son, Joram Paul, born later in the United States. With the onset of World War II and Nazi persecution targeting Jews, including Jacqueline's Rothschild family, the family fled Europe and settled in Los Angeles, California, where they resided for the remainder of Piatigorsky's life. Joram pursued a career in biochemistry, while Jephta maintained a lower public profile.