Georgian violinist and teacher Marina Yashvili has died at the age of 79. For 32 years she taught violin at the Moscow Conservatoire, having previously been a teacher at the Tbilisi Conservatory in Georgia, and at the University of Novi Sad Academy of Arts in the former Yugoslavia.

Born in 1932 in Tbilisi, Yashvili began studying the violin at the age of six. She began performing regularly in concerts at 14, winning first prize at the Jan Kubelík International Violin Competition in Prague in 1949. She also won prizes at the 1955 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, and at the Wieniawski Competition in Pozna?, Poland. She subsequently attended many of the Pozna? competitions as a juror.

Yashvili began her teaching career while still a student at the Moscow Conservatoire. She studied violin under Konstantin Mostras, completing her studies in 1957. From 1958 to 1966 she taught at the Conservatoire, before returning to Tbilisi, where she taught until 1974. She spent four years at the Novi Sad Academy (now in Serbia), being made a professor in 1977. She returned to Moscow in 1980, where she spent the remainder of her career. She also regularly gave masterclasses in Germany, Switzerland, Spain, France, Poland and Japan.

As a player, Yashvili spent five years as artistic director of the Georgia Chamber Orchestra, and performed as a soloist with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, among many others. Her tours as soloist and recitalist took her to Sweden, Italy, Germany, France, the Czech Republic, Israel, South America and Turkey.

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