Юрий Башмет

More than fifty concertos and solo works have been written for Yuri Bashmet — by Schnittke, Gubaidulina, Kancheli, Denisov, Takemitsu and Tavener among others — and that catalogue is the clearest measure of what he did for an instrument which had almost no solo literature of its own when he began. Born in Rostov-on-Don on 24 January 1953, he studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Vadim Borisovsky and afterwards with Fyodor Druzhinin, and took the Grand Prix at the ARD competition in Munich in 1976 while still a student. He founded the Moscow Soloists in 1986 and has directed them from within the ensemble ever since, and has conducted orchestras across Europe and Asia. He has taught at the Moscow Conservatory since 1978 and has held a professorship there since 1996. His instrument is a viola made in 1758 by the Milanese luthier Paolo Testore, which came to him in 1972. Several Grammy Awards and the State Prize of Russia are among his distinctions. Accounts of the year differ: the narrative gives the founding of the Moscow Soloists in 1986, the biography in 1985, at the point where his conducting began. He took the New Russia State Symphony Orchestra as artistic director and principal conductor in 2002 and has led the All-Russian Youth Symphony Orchestra since 2012. In 1994 he established both the Moscow international viola competition and a charitable fund whose annual Shostakovich awards have gone to Kremer, Gergiev, Mutter and Vengerov among others, and he presides over the Lionel Tertis competition in Britain. France made him an Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2000 and of the Légion d'honneur in 2003; Ruse, where he plays at the March Music Days, made him an honorary citizen.