Marina Gordon

Marina Gordon was performing mostly contemporaneous Russian and Belarusian songs, premiering many works by once highly celebrated Soviet composers like Isaac Dunayevsky, Yuri Milyutin, and the Pokrass Brothers.^[1] In 1956 she participated in a Jewish concert, the first to be allowed by Soviet authorities since the infamous "Night of the Murdered Poets". Marina Gordon performed a selection of songs composed to verses by contemporaneous Yiddish poets who lived in the USSR. Since then she championed a similar repertoire created by composers Lev Pulver, Lev Yampolsky, Samuel Polonsky, Rebecka Boyarska, Samuel Senderey and others.^[1] She was giving solo performances and was participating in concerts featuring music, poetry and drama by Yiddish actors Leah and Joseph Kolins. She made numerous recordings of contemporary Jewish songs. Her last two albums were recorded in collaboration with concertmaster/pianist David Ashkenazi (the father of the legendary Vladimir Ashkenazi) and the Soviet State Broadcast Pop Orchestra under direction of Vladimir Terletsky.

• Rita Ottens. «Ich mochte stolz sein auf die Kunst meines Volkes». Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 2006/04 Schott Music. Mainz. Germany (in German). Subscription required.