Gregor Piatigorsky

Gregor Piatigorsky (1903-1976), Russian-American cellist, born in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine), and trained in Moscow and in Leipzig. During the 1920s he established an international reputation and in 1929 he settled in the United States. In 1956 he commissioned and gave the first performance of the cello concerto by William Walton. He is also known for his renditions of the concertos by Sergei Prokofiev and Paul Hindemith, and for chamber music performances with the violinist Jascha Heifetz and the pianist Arthur Rubinstein.