Galina A. Prilutskaya

Galina Prilutskaya June 6, 1955 – October 11, 2025
Galina Prilutskaya (Kaplan), 70, passed away at her home in Princeton, NJ on October 11, 2025. She was an accomplished classical pianist, devoted teacher and mentor to her students, and beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister and friend.
Galina was born on June 6, 1955 in a suburb of Moscow, Russia into a family of medical professionals. She charted her own path, found her passion for the piano at an early age, and studied with some of the most prominent professors of classical piano in Russia, graduating with Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Piano Pedagogy and Performance.
She met her future husband Arkadiy in a Moscow theater while they were both at university, and they married just several months later in 1976. Upon graduating, Galina toured and performed extensively throughout the Russia as a soloist, accompanist and chamber musician. She also developed a love of teaching music and increasingly focused on classical piano and chamber music instruction, particularly after her own two children were born in 1985 and 1989.
In 1992, fleeing institutional antisemitism and seeking a better life for their children, Galina's family moved to Princeton. Shortly thereafter, she began working as a teacher at the Westminster Conservatory of Music at Rider University, where she taught for more than 30 years and was a master faculty member. Galina also taught students of all ages, ranging from 3 to 93 years old, at her private studio.
While she continued to perform on stage throughout the United States, Galina was most passionate about developing and mentoring her students, whom she was devoted to with all her heart. Over the years, she received multiple prestigious teaching awards and her students, as winners of numerous competitions, have performed with orchestras at notable music halls around the world. Galina loved all music that brought people joy, and her legacy will live on through the hundreds of students and families with whom she shared the gift of music over her five decades of teaching and performing.
She is survived by her sister Sonya; her devoted husband Arkadiy; her loving sons Yuriy (Susannah) and Lenny; and her cherished grandchildren Jakob, Lukas and Maks.
A memorial service was held on October 19, 2025 at the Star of David Memorial Chapel (Mather-Hodge) in Princeton, followed by burial at Princeton Cemetery.
Donations in Galina's memory may be made to charities that support music education.