"From Stalin’s death in 1953 until she agreed 20 years later to have the cellist and dissident Mstislav Rostropovich lodge with her, Lilian Hochhauser was Britain’s link with the Soviet Union.
She travelled back and forth through the chilliest days of the Cold War bringing the finest dancers and musicians to Britain and taking cultural greats such as Benjamin Britten the other way.
Mrs Hochhauser has received a CBE for her services to arts and cultural education. It follows Russia granting her and her husband Victor its Order of Friendship for their work strengthening relations between the countries," said The Times about Mrs. Hokhauser’s awarding. (The Hokhausers received the Russian Order of Friendship in 2010. Victor Hochhauser has been handed a CBE in 1993, on the occasion of his 70th birthday).
Now Lillian and Victor Hokhausers - ninety-one and ninety-four respectively, continue to remain "at the helm," hitting everyone with their fantastic energy, workability and optimism. (As The Times of Israel wrote, "at a scarcely believable 90 years old, Lilian Hochhauser is not yet ready to hang up her ballet shoes").
The award press release briefly recalls the achievements of this amazing woman and her no less amazing husband. They organized the tours of Dmitry Shostakovich, Emil Gilels, Sviatoslav Richter, Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, the largest British and Israeli orchestras, established cultural ties with China (in the period when they became persona non grata in the USSR because of the hospitality extended to Mstislav Rostropovich, who lived in the Hochhauser's flat in London for a year after he was deprived of Soviet citizenship), but recently they are primarily engaged in organizing guest tours of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres, whose performances are regularly held on the stage of Covent Garden.
The Bolshoi Theatre joined in congratulating its legendary partner.
Art. Lebedev Studio