page_title: Radu Lupu
section_title: Early life and education
hierarchical_section_title: Radu Lupu / Life and career / Early life and education
caption_attribution_description: Главный вход в здание консерватории
context_page_description: Radu Lupu CBE is a Romanian pianist. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest living pianists. Born in Galați, Romania, Lupu began studying piano at the age of six. Two of his major piano teachers were Florica Musicescu, who was also the teacher of Dinu Lipatti, and Heinrich Neuhaus, who was also the teacher of Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels. From 1966 to 1969, he won first prizes of three of the world's most prestigious piano competitions: the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the George Enescu International Piano Competition, and the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition. These victories launched Lupu's international career and he has appeared with all of the major orchestras and at all of the major festivals and music capitals of the world.
  From 1970 to 1993, Lupu made over 20 recordings for Decca Records.
context_section_description: Lupu was born in Galați, Romania on 30 November 1945, the son of Meyer Lupu, an attorney, and Ana Gabor, a linguist. From his earliest days, Lupu "had always expressed himself by singing", and was given his first piano at the age of five. He began piano studies in 1951, as a six-year-old, with Lia Busuioceanu. He made his public debut in 1957, at age 12, in a concert featuring his own compositions. He told The Christian Science Monitor in 1970 that "from the very beginning I regarded myself as a composer. I was sure, and everybody else was sure, that one day I would become a famous composer". He gave up composing about four years later, saying that he thought he would be "much better as a pianist".
  After completing high school in Galați, and graduating from the Popular School for the Arts in Brașov, where he studied harmony and counterpoint with Victor Bickerich, Lupu continued his piano studies at the Bucharest Conservatory (1959–1961) with Florica Musicescu (who also taught Dinu Lipatti), and Cella Delavrancea, studying also composition with Dragos Alexandrescu. At the age of 16, in 1961, he was awarded a scholarship to the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied for seven years. In Moscow, he first studied with Galina Eguiazarova (a pupil of Alexander Goldenweiser) for two years, and then with Heinrich Neuhaus (who also taught Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels) and later with his son, Stanislav Neuhaus. He graduated in 1969. Lupu was also a student of Maria Curcio, a student of Artur Schnabel. However, in a 1981 interview, when asked about what types of influences his teachers had on him, Lupu answered that he thought of himself as more audodidactic: "My first teacher took me to every orchestral concert, and I am also grateful for what I learned in Moscow, but I think of myself, basically (in music anyway), as somebody who is more autodidactic. I took some from Furtwängler, Toscanini, everywhere...more and more so since I left Moscow."
caption: The Moscow Conservatory, where Lupu studied from 1961 to 1969
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