| Biography | Zalkowitsch was born in Krasnodar in the Caucasian Mountains in 1940. He, his father, mother and brother were taken as a political prisoners by the Germans and incarcerated in a concentration camp at Braunschweig, where his mother was killed. After the war the 2 brothers and their father remained in Germany until 1949 when they were assisted to emigrate to Brazil.
There, Gennady learnt the obe and piano and became an orchestral conductor at the age of 17. Four years later he organised Brazil's first Festival of Contemporary Music at Rio's Museum of Modern Art. In Brazil, his talent was recognised by the composer, Igor Stravinsky, who arranged for him to study composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. There he won a competition to become a student of Herbert von Karajan, the late maestro of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Three years later, Zalkowitsch embarked on a solo career as musician and later independent filmmaker and producer. It was a documentary film about the raft fishermen of Brazil, which Gennady co-produced with his brother for BBC2 in 1981 that was destined to change the direction of his life. 'I wanted to make more films about lifestyles in that kind of rapidly disappearing world - but I needed money' he says. 'It was suggested to me that instead of asking private people and institutions for financial backing I could actually make the money for myself. I was given the telephone number of the director of the soon-to-be-opened Museum of Kuwait, Sheikh Nasser Al Sabah, and Prince Shahram Pahlavi, a nephew of the Shah of Iran, and was told that Shahram wanted to sell Islamic art treasures and Sheikh Nasser wanted to buy them. I was to work on a commission basis between thetwo.' Zalkowitsch became involed in the world of Islamic art dealing, first as a go-between and then, as his fortunes improved, as a buyer and seller. He was entrusted with large cheques and often there was no paperwork to prove rights of sale. In 1987 he spent 10 months in prison for a crime he did not commit - for receiving and exporting art treasures stolen from a London gallery in a raid in 1985. |