Yelena Ivanovna Goldenweiser was the second wife of the outstanding pianist Alexander Borisovich Goldenweiser. They met in the fall of 1930, when Yelena (nee Grachyova) called the professor’s home and asked him if she could be transferred to his piano class at the Anton and Nikolay Rubinstein Technical School. Yelena recalled, “I told Alexander Borisovich that I was a student of Zograf-Plaskina, and now I would like to enter his class. If I knew then that I was going to address one of the most interesting and significant people of my time, I would hardly have had the courage to dial his phone number, tell him my surname no one would know, and make this bold request.”

Goldenweiser invited the student to his apartment in Skatertny Lane. Yelena was let into a large room with two pianos and left alone. After a while, light, quick steps were heard, the door opened, and Goldenweiser appeared. He greeted her cordially, sat down in an armchair and invited Yelena to play her repertoire. The musician was satisfied,

After finishing the technical school, Elena Grachyova decided not to enter the Moscow Conservatory and for some time left the field of music. Her second meeting with Goldenweiser took place in the mid-1940s. She got a job as Goldenweiser’s laboratory assistant at the Moscow Conservatory and regularly attended his lessons in class No. 42. There she realized that it was important to write down everything she heard from the musician. Her work gave us the opportunity to get acquainted with Goldenweiser’s pedagogical principles, as well as read his memoirs and diaries.

Over time, Yelena became not only an assistant, but also a friend of Alexander Goldenweiser. In the autumn of 1956, they got married. Now Yelena Goldenweiser helped her husband not only in the department of the Moscow Conservatory, but also in his memorial apartment, which was created in 1955. After his death, Yelena Goldenweiser became the first director of the museum. She carefully kept the memory of her husband, helped young musicians, and was engaged in scientific and educational activities.