Mścisław Rostropowicz

Mstislav Rostropovich (1927–2007), a Russian cellist, conductor and teacher of Polish descent, one of the greatest cellists of the 20^th century. A pupil of Dmitri Shostakovich in the Moscow Conservatory (from 1960 – a teacher there). Since 1951 he gave numerous concerts in the Western Europe and the United States, to an immense success. Many of contemporary composers wrote pieces for him (Britten, Shostakovich, Prokofiyev, Kabalevskiy, Penderecki, Lutosławski, Schnittke, Panufnik, Piazzolla). Altogether he ordered, inspired or became a recipient of dedication of 117 musical pieces. His pupils include, among others, Misha Maisky and Ivan Monighetti. In 1974 he left the Soviet Union together with his wife, the singer Galina Vishnevskaya. In the years 1978-1994 Rostropovich was the musical director of the National Symphonic Orchestra in Washington and performed with it for the first time Nordheim’s cello concerto Tenebrae.