Yuri Bashmet, music director

"Without a doubt one of today's most brilliant musicians" (The Times).

Born in 1953 in Rostov, Ukraine, at the age of 18 he becomes a member of the viola class at the Ciaikovskij Conservatory in Budapest, and the following year he won first prize at the Competition in Munich.
His exceptional career as a soloist starts here.
He plays in some of the most important concert halls with some of the most important orchestras, like the Philharmonic of Berlin, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Orchestre National of France, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the Philharmonic Orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Washington, Montreal, Paris etc.
He works beside directors like Kubelik, Davis, Giulini, Rostropovich, Solti, Jansons, Dutoit, Plasson, Gergiev, Haitink, Bychkov and Ozawa, and often collaborates with brilliant musicians like Svjatoslav Richter, Isaac Stern, Gidon Kremer, Natalia Gutman, Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Borodin Quartet.
His unique talent and deep love for contemporary music have inspired composers to dedicate pieces of music to him to the point that the viola repertoire has greatly grown. With Alfred Schnittke and Giya Kanceli he shared this same passion for music.
In 1992 he founded the Moscow Soloist chamber orchestra, with whom he went on many world tours.
In 1994 he was awarded the title of "Best instrumentalist of the year" at the Classical Musical Awards ceremony, and in 1995 he was given first prize by the Sonings Foundation of Copenhagen.
Thanks to his artistic skills he has also been given the title of Commander of the Italian Republic, and, as a way of thanking him for the great success of the Elba Festival, European Island of Music, that he founded in 1997, he was granted the freedom of the city by the town of Portoferraio.
He also records for the RCA Victor, Sony Classical and Deutsche Grammophon.