Biography
Aleksey Gorokhov studied at the Central Music School attached to the Moscow Conservatory between 1934 and 1944. At the Conservatory he studied in the class of Professor L.M. Tzeytlin, graduating in 1949. In 1955 he finished Post-Graduate study under the instruction of Professor A. I. Yampolsky. He was a contemporary of Rudolf Barshai who also studied there under Tzeytlin and Yampolsky. In addition to his violin studies he received a degree in Musicology.
Achieving prizes at several international violin competitions he toured extensively in the Soviet Union as well as in Germany, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Romania, Portugal and Korea. Between 1949 and 1951 Gorokhov took part in several International Violin Competitions, among them the Bach Competition in Leipzig in 1950 where he was awarded 2nd prize, and the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels in 1951 where he was awarded 7th Prize.
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In 1957 he became a professor of the violin at the Kiev Conservatory (later renamed Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music) and taught there until his death.
Gorokhov lived a simple, humble life. One of the primary factors in his decision to move to Kiev in 1956 was a disinterest[citation needed] in the politics of his Russian homeland. This may partly explain why, apart from being declared an "Honored Artist Worker of Ukraine", he was never given real status in either country.
Had he stayed in Russia, he may have become as well known a violinist as Leonid Kogan or David Oistrakh.
In Kiev, former students of Gorokhov carry on his tasteful, intimate tradition of playing.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.