Elena Bashkirova

Elena Dmitrievna Bashkirova (Russian: Елена Дмитриевна Башкирова; born 1958) is a Russian-born Israeli classical pianist, chamber musician and musical director. She is the founder and artistic director of the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival and, since 2020, president of the Felix-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Stiftung in Leipzig.

Bashkirova was born in Moscow into a musical family. Her father was the pianist and pedagogue Dmitri Bashkirov. She began formal study at the age of 15 in her father's class at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Together with violinist Gidon Kremer, with whom she had appeared as a duo partner, she left the Soviet Union in 1978 and settled in Paris.

Bashkirova's activities include appearances as a soloist, chamber musician, accompanist of singers and artistic programmer. Her official biography describes chamber music as a central part of her artistic work and notes that she has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony, the Orchestre de Paris and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
As a chamber musician, Bashkirova has performed with artists associated with the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival and with the Berlin festival Intonations. Her repertoire includes solo piano literature, chamber music and song accompaniment. Singers with whom she has appeared in duo programmes include Anna Netrebko, Olga Peretyatko, Dorothea Röschmann, René Pape and Robert Holl.