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About me A short description of my career path

Music started for me in early childhood when I realized that I wanted to play the instrument myself. The first thing I did after waking up - was taking the violin in my hands. Friends and parents tried to get me out to walk, but with no success as I was very occupied with playing violin. Nobody was making me doing this, that was solely my temptation. Just like today.

I studied with my uncle in musical school and that was the time when I first got the feeling of success performing in children's concerts and winning competitions. I was born in deep USSR province (this is now a part of Ukraine), so my next big milestone was study in Kiev, large city and now capital of Ukraine. I took my chances to move to Kiev just after winning big competition when I was 13.

Still that was not good enough me either and I was dreaming about studying with famous violinist and teacher David Oistrakh in Moscow. Sometimes dreams come true and that was exactly my case: I got the phone number of a great master and gave him a ring. Surprisingly easy he agreed to have an audition which was scheduled on 1st of January.

I played Sibelius concert and Bach's sonata, but after that Oistrakh asked to play simple scales. I still think that was the thing that made the trick. Scales are irreplaceable for every violinist, nothing can be done without them. The decision came quick - I was invited to join the class of just 10 people from the whole USSR. That was my happy new year.

Here I was, in Moscow conservatoire. Moscow amazed me by its culture life. It was like a big discovery for me, I attended every single concert I could, tried to absorb the spirit of conservatoire, because it was one of the best in the world at the time. David Oistrakh's lessons attracted a lot of people, including famouse musicans, therefore each time it was like a mini-concert.

In 1974 D.Oistrakh passed away and I found myself at the crossroads. I had to move on and continue with my study and the fate let me meet one of the oldest tutor of the conservatoire - Boris Belenky. I learned really a lot of thing from him before I graduated.

My post-graduate study has been on two subjects: quartet and performace. Those years I have been especially interested in chamber genre, so I became a professional quartet performer. This period of time in my life has been marked by numerous international competitions, where in most cases I was given a top awards.

Long period of time my life was all about work in Moscow Philharmonic society. Tour after tour across country and abroad with whole series of concerts - that was what I have been doing for years in 70s and 80s. Another remarkable result of that time are two issued CDs.

In 1992 I started teaching in Gnesin special musical school. This is the school-college specifically devoted to teaching gifted children 5-18 years of age. Since I've started working there a lot of students of mine have graduated and become a laureates of different competitions. Since 2007 I work in Moscow conservatoire as a seniour tutor.

I always think there's so much more that can be done, therefore I founded the musical charity named after D.Oistrakh that was an organizer of the young violinist's competition in Moscow. Up to the moment the competition has been held three times and I hope it will have a long history.

Many of my students achieve a big success. Just to mention a few (more all students here): Nikita Borisoglebsky who won a number of competitions, including 2nd place on Chakovsky competition and 5th place on Elisabeth's competition in Belgium in 2009; Maria Shamshina who is currently studying in Zurich; Marianna Terteryan, laureate of many competitions - she performs solo and lives in China; Dmitry Hahamov who won grand-prix on the competition in Fermo, Italy; the youngest of my students - Anna Savkina, won several competitions including the one named after Schpor in Weimar, Germany.

I have regular master-classes in Austria, China and Croatia.