Moscow Soloists

Yuri Bashmet, Artistic Director

The first performances of The Moscow Soloists took place on 19 May 1992 in the Big Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and on 21 May 1992 at the Salle Pleyel, Paris, when Yuri Bashmet gathered the cream of the graduates of the Moscow State Conservatory.
Since that time, The Moscow Soloists have given more than 1700 concerts, to audiences in over 50 countries on 5 continents performing in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including: Carnegie Hall, New York; Musikverein, Vienna; Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; Suntory Hall, Tokyo; Philharmonie, Berlin and Cologne; The Royal Albert hall and the Barbican Centre, London; Tivoli, Copenhagen; Cite de la Musique, Paris and Accademia Santa Cecilia, Rome.
Today the world press describes this ensemble as, "one of the best in the world in this genre"; it has been hailed as, "the voice of the Nation" by Il Tempo.
The Moscow Soloists have worked with such celebrated artists as Sviatoslav Richter, Gidon Kremer, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sarah Chang, Maxim Vengerov, Vadim Repin, Shlomo Mintz, Barbara Hendricks, James Galway, Lynn Harrell, Mario Brunello, Steven Isserlis, Boris Berezovsky, Olga Borodina, Jessye Norman, Anna Netrebko and Thomas Quasthoff. In 1994 the ensemble made the first of its many recordings, a CD for EMI with Gidon Kremer and Mstislav Rostropovich. In 1998 The Moscow Soloists recorded works by Shostakovich and Brahms for Sony Classical, later named the “best recording of the year” by the critics of Strad magazine and nominated for Grammy award. Having been nominated in 1994, 1998 and 2007, the ensemble received Grammy in 2008 for their recording of works by Stravinsky and Prokofiev on the ONYX label. The last Grammy nomination came in 2009, for the recording of the music of Chinese and Japanese composers.
The ensemble participated in many significant musical festivals including Rostropovich's Evian Festival, Montreux, Verbier, Sydney, Bath, BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Prestige de la Musique at Salle Pleyel in Paris, Semaines Musicales de Tours and December Nights in Moscow.
In autumn 2009 The Moscow Soloists went on a major tour of Russia performing exclusively on Stradivarius instruments belonging to the Russian Government collection of unique musical instruments. In 2013-14 the ensemble performed this unique project in major European capitals. This was the first tour of such kind in the history.

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