(left) and conductor
Franz Konwitschny Oistrakh was born on 27 April 1931 in
Odessa to a Jewish family. He began studying violin with Valeria Merenbloom at age 6, though his main teacher was his father. In 1943, the 12-year-old Oistrakh enrolled in the Central Music School, Moscow, studying with
Pyotr Stolyarsky who had taught both his father and
Nathan Milstein. He made his concert debut in 1948; the next year he won the International Violin Competition in Budapest and enrolled in the
Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Oistrakh appeared frequently internationally, both as a soloist and in joint recitals with his father, or with his father conducting. After living and working in
Brussels in
Belgium with his family, Oistrakh returned to Russia in 2011. He was twice a member of the jury of the
Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in
Poznan (1972, 1977). On 14 August 2021, Oistrakh died at age 90 from acute heart failure; however, media generally reported this on 1 September 2021. After cremation, the musician's ashes were buried at the
Novodevichy Cemetery. ==References==