The name of the outstanding violinist Leonid Borisovich Kogan is known to the general public in various countries of the world. He was born on November 14, 1924. in Katerynoslav (now Dnipro) in a family of employees: father Boris Semenovych and mother Sofia Lvivna Kogan. Since childhood, the future violinist loved vocal music – Ukrainian folk songs especially attracted his attention.

Already at the age of five, Leonid showed the ability to play the violin. “I didn't go to bed in the evening unless a violin was placed next to me,” the musician recalled. When the child was 9 years old, the family moved to Moscow, where the teacher of the young talent was a famous violinist, the founder of a well-known violin school in the territory of the USSR at that time, also a native of our city, Abram Yampolskyi. Subsequently, a brilliant career was predicted for the talented young man by the French virtuoso violinist Jacques Thibault.

Before graduating from the conservatory, in 1951 Leonid received the first prize at the Queen Elizabeth competition in Brussels for a brilliant performance of Niccolò Paganini's First Concerto with a complex cadenza by Emile Soret. Throughout his life, Paganini will remain Kogan's favorite author.

Having a wide repertoire, Leonid Borisovych performed in the most prestigious academic halls on different continents. Already in the 1950s, he performed a series of concerts covering the entire violin repertoire. F. Mannino, A. Khachaturyan, T. Khrenikov, and M. Weinberg dedicated their works to Kogan. In addition, he performed with orchestras under the direction of E. Mravinsky, S. Munsch, K. Zanderling, A. Jansons, R. Barshay, P. Monte, S. Brückkom, P. Kindrashyn, played in an ensemble with A. Rubinstein, E. Gilels, M. Rostropovich. Many of Kogan's recordings are considered benchmarks. He was awarded many state awards for his creativity. A violinist with a world name, who was part of the constellation of the best musicians, at the same time he was a very modest person and was always willing to communicate with people.

The musician died at the age of 58 on December 17, 1982.

Five films were made about L. Kogan, in one of which he voiced the violin part of N. Paganini (“Niccolo Paganini”, 1982).

It is very telling that in the musician's hometown, Dnipro, several institutions preserve the contribution of the outstanding violinist. Yes, the leading concert organization of our city – the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Philharmonic, bears the name of a talented native. Employees of the Museum “Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine” were also involved in process of assigning the name of the talented violinist. Many exhibits are dedicated to the violinist in the Museum – books, photos, letters, records. In honor of the opening of this exposition in 2013, a chamber concert “The Magic of Leonid Kogan's Music” was held, dedicated to the outstanding master. Among its participants were both individual performers (winners of numerous competitions) and musical groups – the chamber ensemble of music school No. 7 “Young Virtuosos” (director Zhanna Koblentz) and the string quartet “Harmony” of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Philharmonic. Ms. Koblentz was one of the initiators of the Open Competition of Young Violinists and Cellists named after L. Kogan, which was first held in Dnipropetrovsk in 2012; the head of the jury was Nina Kogan, daughter of the violinist. She donated to the Museum gift discs with a documentary film about her father, with recordings of music performed by him and a book of photos and memories of great musicians Leonid Kogan.

Lyudmila Sandul