Boris Mironowitsch Pergamenschikow, , (29 August 1948 in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

– 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 Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

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: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...

and acclaimed as a

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

. 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 ins ...

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

(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 composers Russian male composers 20th-century Russian male musicians Soviet emigrants to Germany 20th-century cellists {{Russia-bio-stub