User:Eugenek1/ Orlov, Irena

Orlov, Irena (born Rozhanskaya, Irena, others surnames: Yasnogorodskaya) ( Орлова, Ирэна (Рожанская, Ирэна, прочие фамилии: Ясногородская); was born on April 19, 1942 in Saint Petersburg, then Leningrad, is a Russian-American pedagogue and piano teacher. Her current and former students include a number of children prodigies and celebrities who credit her for being a significant force in their musical development.

Personal Life
Irena Orlov was born in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia) to a family of Abram Isaakovich Rozhansky, a prominent Jewish trial lawyer. In 1960-1970-ies, Rozhansky actively participated as a defender in a number of political trials known as anti-Jewish trials of 1969-1975. The family was an active in the cultural life and in the circles of the Leningrad underground artistic community. Irena Orlov was close to such figures as Alexei Khvostenko, Mikhnov-Voitenko, Alexander Knaifel. Following the publication of Abram Rozhansky's "Anti-Jewish Trials in the Soviet Union", Irena's staying in the USSR became problematic.

She was a friend of Leonid Aronzon,(1939 - 1970) and Elena_Schwarz (alt. spelling: Schvarts)(1948 - 2010), Russian poets. Following the death of Leonid Aronzon,

Irena was instrumental in arranging a secret transfer of the Aronzon's archive outside of

the USSR. Later she became the keeper of the archive (till 1993).

She and poet Elena Schvarts made possible the first signifcant publication of L. Aronzon's collected poems in Israel ("Maler" publishers).

In 1993 she returned the archive to the poet's brother Vitaly Aronzon, whom she considered the

poet's rightful heir after the death of his wife Rita Purishinskaya.

In 1960 - 1980 Irena was a close friend and supporter of Boris Ponozovsky (1930 - 1995), a reformer and theorist of theater.

Irena was married to Henry (Genrikh) Orlov (1926 - 2007), a musicologist and philosopher, the author "A Tree of Music", a

fundamental work on the philosohy and cultural aspects of music.

Professional life
She was trained at School of Music of Leningrad Conservatory. One of her teachers was then famous and prolific pedagogue Marianna Freindling. Irena Orlov showed interest in teaching piano with noticeable success at age 15, when she was still in high school. She entered Saint Petersburg Conservatory and graduated in 1970 and established her name as a free spirited and very efficient teacher of music. She taught at a children's school of music and performed in The Ensemble of Period Instruments under Andrey Boreyko.

In 1980 Irena Yasnogorodskaya moved to Israel, where she continued teaching. She also developed musical

therapy methods which she used as a therapist in psychiatric hospitals. She showed publicly the effectiveness of her

musical therapy for patients with dementia and deep depression.

In 1986 Irena Orlov moved to the USA. She joined the faculty of the Levine School of Music in Washington, DC. For

more then 20 years Irena Orlov has produced students consistently winning in a variety of young musicians'

competitions, many of whom continued their education in leading conservatories of music of the world, including

Julliard School, St. Petersburg Conservatory, Royal Conservatory of the Hague and many others. She enjoys

considerable recognition from the faculty members and musicians associated with those schoools.

Her notable former students include Sam Post, Edward Neeman, Zak Sandler and Leo Svirsky

Notable mentions and recognition
Irena Orlov is mentioned a number of times in connection with the L.Aronzon's poetry

Elena Schvarts dedicated her poem "David in Dance" to her.

In 2007 "Reaching Beyond", a film summarizing her unusual insight and skill in teaching music to children was

produced by a group of enthusiasts.

A Russian website dedicated to learning English published a practice dialog in both English and Russian where the student is talking about Irena Orlov, his piano teacher.