Iosif Kotek

Iosif Iosifovich Kotek, also seen as Josef or Yosif (, Iosif Iosifovič Kotek; 6 November 18554 January 1885), was a Russian violinist and composer remembered for his association with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He assisted Tchaikovsky with technical difficulties in the writing of the solo part in his Violin Concerto in D. Biography Iosif Kotek was born in Kamenets-Podolsk, Russian Empire, in 1855, the son of a Czech father and a Russian mother. He studied violin under Jan Hřímalý at the Moscow Conservatory, where he was also a composition student of Tchaikovsky. From the outset, their attraction was mutual. He held Tchaikovsky’s music in the highest regard, and he was the composer’s favourite pupil. Tchaikovsky was infatuated with his student—he called him “Kotik”, Russian for little tomcat —and it has been conjectured by some (and asserted unambiguously by others) that they became lovers. They certainly became physically very affectionate, as demonstrated in Tchaikovsky’s 1876 letter to his brother Modest about Kotek: “When he caresses me with his hand, when he lies with his head inclined on my breast, and I run my hand through his hair and secretly kiss it … passion rages within