Violin prodigy dies ‘after taking drug cocktail called Calvin Klein’
A SCHOOLGIRL violin prodigy found dead by her multi-millionaire father at the family’s London mansion is suspected of overdosing on a new drug cocktail known as a ‘Calvin Klein’.
Katya Tsukanova, 17, was regarded as one of Britain’s brightest young musicians and had given a concert at the Royal Opera House just days before her death.
Her body was discovered by her father Igor, a Russian banker turned art collector and philanthropist, at the family’s fourstorey home in Kensington, West London, on June 18.
She was a pupil at Wycombe Abbey, the same school as Ben Goldsmith’s 15-year-old daughter Iris, who died in a quad bike accident on Monday.
Katya is thought to have overdosed on a dangerous mix of cocaine and horse tranquiliser ketamine, known as a ‘Calvin Klein’ after its initials.
‘My daughter was so happy, and she had such a bright future,’ Mr Tsukanov, 57, told the Daily Telegraph. ‘What can we parents do? The children will do what they want anyway, and they never tell you the truth.’
He said he had previously found some of Katya’s friends unconscious after a party, but said he believed his daughter only drank alcohol. ‘Then one morning I came in, and she was lying dead on the floor. I don’t know if she took ketamine or cocaine, or a mix, but perhaps it makes sense,’ he said.
A source close to the schoolgirl told the paper she may have overdosed on ‘ Calvin Klein’, adding that the drug cocktail was ‘the new thing’.
‘It’s everywhere,’ added the source. ‘It’s so dangerous.’
Katya was on a music scholarship to the exclusive £13,000-aterm Wycombe Abbey boarding school in Buckinghamshire. It has suffered two tragedies in a month after the death of fellow pupil Iris Goldsmith.
Headmistress Rhiannon Wilkinson said Katya was a ‘lovely, popular, outgoing, well respected and incredibly talented young woman’.
Katya’s parents, Igor and Natasha, 52, moved to London following the fall of the Soviet Union where they built up a £100million fortune.
Their minimalist ‘ iceberg’ house in Kensington has a twostorey basement with a swimming pool, gym and wine cellar. Its walls are hung with artworks costing as much as £300,000.
Mr Tsukanov is an expert on post-war Russian art and the family has a charitable foundawas
‘Incredibly talented’
tion supporting musical education that backs the Royal Opera House. He once said he wanted to change perceptions of Russians as ‘flashy’. Mrs Tsukanova is chair of the international board of governors of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
The couple were too upset to speak about their daughter’s death yesterday.
London-born Katya gave her first performance aged five. She educated at the Royal College of Music, and has played venues including New York’s Carnegie Hall.
She attended masterclasses with top Russian tutor Zakhar Bron, and was named best young musician at the famous Suoni dal Golfo festival in Lerici, Italy last year. A memorial concert will be held there next month.
She was on a gap year before her A-Levels when she died.
More than 100 people including former teachers attended her funeral at London’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral.
The Metropolitan Police said an ambulance was called to the family home at about 6.15am on June 18 where a girl was pronounced dead. The death is not being treated as suspicious and an inquest is being planned.
Drug users have described the effect of taking cocaine and ketamine as ‘intense’ and ‘ psychotic’. Charity Drug Science, says taking the drugs together ‘may overload your heart’.