YURI BASHMET
Among the many high-level music professionals, there are also those who are destined to give life to new trends and approaches in art. One of those musicians is undoubtedly Yuri Abramovich Bashmet, who has turned the viola into a solo instrument. Yuri Bashmet has worked with many outstanding conductors, including Rafael Kubelik, Mstislav Rostropovich, Seiji Ozawa, Valery Gergiev, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Colin Davis, John Eliot Gardiner, Yehudi Menuhin, Charles Dutoit, Neville Marriner, Paul Sacher, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink, Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle, Yuri Temirkanov, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
As a soloist and conductor, Yuri Bashmet performs with the world’s finest symphony orchestras: the Berliner Philarmoniker, the New York Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de Paris, and others. With these orchestras, he has successfully performed symphonic works by Brahms, Haydn, Schubert, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven. A particularly significant event in the musical life of Russia was his direction of Shostakovich’s Symphony No.13 at the Bolshoi Theatre.
His solo concerts and ensemble performances with such outstanding performing musicians as Svyatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Isaac Stern, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Gidon Kremer, Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky, Michel Portal, Sidney Mintz, Oleg Kagan, Natalia Gutman, Viktor Tretyakov, and Maria João Pires draw full houses and enjoy the and genuine interest and response of the public.
Yuri Bashmet’s programs include music of different epochs and styles. Fifty viola concertos and other works were written especially for Bashmet, many of which were dedicated to him. These include Alfred Schnittke’s “Concerto,” “Monologue,” and “Concerto for Three” (dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, Yuri Bashmet, and Gidon Kremer), Sofia Gubaidullina’s “Concerto,” Edison Denisov’s “Concerto,” “The Myrrh-Bearer” by John Tavener, Mikhail Pletnev’s “Concerto,” “Sonata Breve” by Andrey Golovin, “Sonata” by Alexander Raskatov, “Liturgy” and “Styx” by Giya Kancheli, two concertos by Alexander Tchaikovsky,” Concerto” Vytautas Barkauskas, “Concerto” by Andrey Eshpai, “Concerto” by Poul Ruders, and many others. Yuri Bashmet revised Schnittke’s “String Trio” for string orchestra, which was later published by Sikorski Music Publishers under the title “Trio Sonata.” The maestro’s extensive repertoire includes works whose interpretation is recognized as unrivalled in the history of the performing arts. These include Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Chaconne,” Franz Schubert’s “Arpeggione Sonata,” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s” Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra,” Dmitry Shostakovich’s “Viola Sonata,” and Alfred Schnittke’s “Concerto for Viola and Orchestra.”
Yuri Bashmet has participated in many festivals around the world, including festivals in Tanglewood (USA), Bordeaux, Biarritz, Menton (France), Brussels (Belgium), Kuhmo, Mikkeli (Finland), Kreuth (Germany), Siena, Camerino, Sorrento, Stresa (Italy), “March Music Days” (Ruse, Bulgaria). He is artistic director and co-organiser of festivals in Rolandseck (Germany), Tours (France), and Elba (Italy). The maestro is a regular participant in promenade concerts at the Albert Hall (London, England). The highest appraisal of Yuri Bashmet’s talent was his appointment as Artistic Director of the December Nights music festival in Moscow, which before him for seventeen years had been directed by the brilliant Svyatoslav Richter.
Yuri Bashmet is the founder and jury chair of Russia’s first and only international viola competition “Viola Masters” held in Moscow. He is President of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition (U.K.) and a member of the jury of the International Viola Competition in Munich and the Maurice Vieux International Viola Competition in Paris.
Yuri Bashmet is a participant in major charity events of global significance: in London at Carnegie Hall (with Elton John and Stevie Wonder) and in memory of Princess Diana. He has taken part in fund-raising concerts for survivors of natural disasters in Armenia and Japan and for disabled children.
Bashmet’s Moscow symphony programs reveal the scope of his creative passions. Russian music is widely represented by works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich; European classics include Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert; contemporary music includes compositions by Schnittke, Gubaidulina, and Kancheli. The maestro’s tours with the Novaya Rossiya Orchestra to cities in Siberia, the Urals, the Volga region, and the Golden Ring region have brought together big audiences of admirers of his work.
Yuri Bashmet’s contribution to peacemaking cannot be overestimated. His high civic stance combined with his outstanding creative work places his name among the great musicians of our time.
Since 1992 Yuri Bashmet has been artistic director and principal conductor of the Moscow Soloists Chamber Ensemble, which is the only winner of the Grammy Award among Russian ensembles (2008). The ensemble’s extensive repertoire includes world classics and works by contemporary composers. The Moscow Soloists have performed in some of the world’s finest concert halls and have toured Russia on numerous occasions, including in the remote regions of the Far North and Northeast; the musicians have even once performed on a submarine.
Since 2002, Yuri Bashmet has been artistic director and principal conductor of the Novaya Rossiya State Symphony Orchestra; he is also founder (2012), artistic director, and principal conductor of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Russia (YSOR). The YSOR comprises over one hundred young musicians aged between ten and twenty-two from different Russian cities. The orchestra was formed based on the unique all-Russian competition of classical music performers. The competition is held once every two years, each time becoming more widespread in terms of geography and audition. Uniting the best young musicians of different ages from all over Russia, YSOR is the first orchestra of its kind in the history of Russia.
Yuri Bashmet’s work has been recognized with numerous awards in Russia and abroad. He is Merited Artist of the RSFSR (1983), People’s Artist of the USSR (1991), winner of the USSR State Prize (1986), Russian State Prizes (1994, 1996, 2001), and the Award-1993 in the category “Best Instrumentalist of the Year.” The maestro is an Honorary Academician of the London Academy of Arts. In 1995, he was awarded the Léonie Sonning Music Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious prizes. In 1999, Yuri Bashmet was made Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters and in 2003, Commander of the Legion of Honour. He is the Knight of the Order of Merits to Lithuania; in 2000, he was also awarded the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic by the President of Italy.
In 2002, the maestro received from the hands of the President of the Russian Federation the Order 3rd class “For Merit to the Fatherland,” in 2013 the Order 4th class “For Merit to the Fatherland,” and in 2020 the Order 2nd class “For Merit to the Fatherland.” In 2022, Yuri Bashmet was awarded the title “Hero of Labor of the Russian Federation” for his special labor merits. In 2023, he received the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of culture.
Yuri Bashmet is an outstanding musician promoting Russia on the world stages. His unique talent, outstanding achievements, and tireless dedication to music have made him one of the most revered and influential musicians of our time. His name is part of the history of world classical music, as his work continues to inspire and fascinate music lovers around the world.