Lydia Mordkovitch, born Lydia Shtimerman in 1944 in Saratov, Russian Federation, was a violinist. She began playing the violin at age seven and studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow under David Oistrakh. In 1967, she won the National Young Musicians Competition in Kiev. Mordkovitch emigrated to Israel in 1974, teaching at the Israeli Academy of Music in Jerusalem before making her first appearance in the UK with the Hallé Orchestra in 1979 and settling permanently in the UK in 1980. She signed with Chandos Records in 1980, releasing over 60 recordings. Her Chandos recording of the violin concertos of Shostakovich won a Gramophone Award in 1990. Mordkovitch became a professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London as a specialist in Russian music. She passed away in 2014.
