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Elena Powstuck Wolkonsky 1929-2015
Pre-College Piano Faculty Member

Longtime Pre-College faculty member Elena Powstuck Wolkonsky (Diploma ’51, Postgraduate Diploma ’52, piano) died on August 14 at age 91 in New York City. She had given her last concert in May. Born in Ekaterinodar, Russia, Wolkonsky began her studies with her mother and graduated from a professional children’s school at 13 before moving on to the Leningrad Conservatory. According to a 1958 New York World-Telegram & Sun profile of her on the occasion of her Town Hall debut, she and her mother escaped the U.S.S.R. and walked across Europe after World War II and then settled in the U.S.; her father had been sent to Siberia and was never heard from again. In 1948, Wolkonsky entered Juilliard, where she studied with Beveridge Webster (faculty 1946-90) and Ernest Hutcheson (faculty 1924-51; president 1937-45) and minored in chorus. She was on the Pre-College faculty for more than three decades (1956-69 and 1973-96) and also taught at the Manhattan School of Music. Her husband, Prince Andre Wolkonsky, predeceased her; she’s survived by their son, Oleg, and daughter, Lana Forstmann (Pre-College ’78; BM ’82, piano), as well as six grandchildren and step grandchildren.

Elena Powstuck Wolkonsky

Elena Powstuck Wolkonsky

(Photo by Juilliard Archives)

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