Yuri Bashmet was born in 1953 in Rostov. In 1971 he graduated from Lvov special music school and entered Moscow conservatory. His teachers were professors V.V.Borisovsky and F.S.Druzhinin. Being a student, the musician became the laureate of International contests in Budapest (1975, 2-nd prize) and in Munich (1976, first prize).
As a soloist Yuri Bashmet performs with the best symphony orchestras: Berlin Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Bayrische Rundfunk, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Wiener Philharmonic, Orchestra Radio France.
Specifically for Yuri Bashmet many modern composers write or dedicate the works to him (more than 50). Among them are: Alfred Schnittke, Edison Denisov, Mikaehl Tariverdiev, Sofia Gubaidulina, John Tavener, Giya Kancheli, Alexandr Tchaikovsky.
Yuri Bashmet is the founder and the chairman of jury of the only one International contest of violist in Moscow, Russia.
From the beginning of conducting activity in 1982 maestro Bashmet acknowledged his bright reputation of charismatic painter of today with pure taste and sense of style.
Since 2002 Yuri Bashmet is the artistic director and chief conductor of State symphony orchestra «New Russia». Symphonic subscriptions of Bashmet in the central halls of Moscow open the scale of creative favors of the musician. Russian music, such as Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich; European classic – Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert; modern authors – Schnittke, Gubaidulina, Kancheli. These masterpieces appear in perfect performance of the expert, who deeply knew the mystery of music language and artistic freedom. Movie and TV companies of different countries (England, France, Russia) filmed several movies about his creative work.
His contribution to peace – making activity is difficult to overestimate. Deep social position of Yuri Bashmet in combination with his distinguished creative activity place his name in a row of the greatest names of the 20th century.
