About the Author

Born in 1920 in Bessarabia, Yakov Soroker studied in Chisinau, Moldova and the Moscow Conservatory with David Oistrakh. He completed his studies at the conservatory in 1955 with a dissertation on Beethoven's violin sonatas, going on to a career as a performer and pedagogue. From 1962 to 1976 he held the chair of music history and theory at the Ivan Franko Pedagogical Institute in Drohobych. He published more than 100 works, including monographs and articles, particularly on the works of Beethoven and Prokofiev and on the violinists Szigeti, Goldstein, and Oistrakh.