Larissa Khusid

Here you see me, Larissa Khusid, in our apartment in Kiev next to our New Year's tree. The photo is from 1937. Before 1935, New Year trees were not allowed in the Soviet Union. They were thought to be a bourgeois vestige. I was born on May 15, 1924 in Odessa. When we moved to a new two-room apartment in Kiev, I began to get acquainted with the world of music. An elderly couple lived in another apartment on our floor. Rachil Abramovna was a music teacher and David Abramovich, a mathematician. Although we didn't have a piano at home, Rachil Abramovna started giving me lessons. In 1931 I attended secondary school and also the Glazunov Music School. By this time we had obtained a piano, and music became my main hobby for the rest of my life. When we moved to Kiev, my parents arranged a meeting for me with a professor from the Conservatory who said I should attend a special school for gifted children. I eenrolled in this school in Muzeiniy Lane.