Boris Mironowitsch Pergamenschikow, , (29 August 1948 in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

– 30 April 2004 in Berlin), was a Russian-born cellist. His father was also a cellist, and gave his son his first lessons. In 1974, Boris Pergamenschikow won a gold medal at the

Tchaikovsky Competition The International Tchaikovsky Competition is a classical music competition held every four years in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia, for pianists, violinists, and cellists between 16 and 32 years of age and singers between 19 and 32 years of ...

in Moscow. In 1977, he emigrated from the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

to the West, which enabled him to start an international career. In 1984, his debut in New York was enthusiastically reviewed. Over the following years he performed as a soloist with leading

orchestras An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

and acclaimed as a

chamber musician Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small num ...

. He moved to Germany, where he taught at the

Hochschule für Musik A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

(1977–1992) and the

Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler ' (, plural: ') is the generic term in German for institutions of higher education, corresponding to ''universities'' and ''colleges'' in English. The term ''Universität'' (plural: ''Universitäten'') is reserved for institutions with the right to ...

in Berlin.

References

1948 births 2004 deaths Musicians from Saint Petersburg Russian classical cellists Academic staff of the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin Russian male composers 20th-century Russian male musicians Soviet emigrants to Germany 20th-century Russian cellists {{Russia-bio-stub