Lydia Mordkovitch was born in Russia and studied at the Odessa Conservatory, then at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow where she was master pupil and assistant to David Oistrakh. She emigrated to Israel in 1974 and since 1980 has lived in Britain, appearing regularly with the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Hallé Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic and English Chamber Orchestra. She has worked with such distinguished conductors as Sir Georg Solti, Riccardo Muti, Vassily Sinaisky, Neeme Järvi, Richard Hickox, Hugo Wolff, Ian Leighton-Konig, Vernon Handley, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Stanislav Skrowaczewski. An impressive discography of well over fifty recordings reflects her very wide repertoire, and encompasses music from the complete works for solo violin by Bach to the concertos of Shostakovich, her recording of which for Chandos won a Gramophone Award and a Diapason d’Or. Her work has twice been nominated for a Gramophone Award and has received seven Critics’ Choices; recent recordings have won major nominations or prizes across Europe. Lydia Mordkovitch has several times been named ‘Woman of the Year’ by the American Biographical Institute, and also ‘Outstanding Woman of the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries’. She is a professor and Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London.