Yuri Abramovich Bashmet is a truly outstanding Soviet, subsequently Russian violist, as well as a teacher, conductor and simply respected public figure.
Thanks to the educational work of Bashmet, a huge number of inhabitants, and professional musicians, realized that the traditional viola for a symphony orchestra could well be a solo musical instrument.
Childhood and youth
Yuri Abramovich was born in a family of ordinary Jews in the city of Rostov in 1953. When the boy was five years old, his father, who worked in the railway sector, moved his family to Lviv, where Yuri spent his youth and managed to graduate from music school. The mother of then little Yura dreamed of playing the violin, while Yuri Bashmet himself loved to play the guitar.
But it turned out that he was trained to play it on the viola. In the early seventies, having graduated from a specialized music school, Bashmet decided to head to Moscow to conquer the moody audience. There, the future great viola player surprisingly easily entered the conservatory, which he quite successfully graduated in 1978.
Personal life
It was in the Moscow Conservatory that Yuri was lucky to meet love in the person of violinist Natalya, with whom they happily lived in marriage all their lives and raised their daughter Ksyusha and son Alexander. In addition, already in his second year, Bashmet began to speak actively, winning the love and recognition of connoisseurs of classical musical creativity and even his own teachers.
