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Mstislav Rostropovich is internationally recognized as a consummate musician. Widely considered to be one of the world's greatest cellist, he has recorded virtually the entire cello repertoire and has inspired many of this century's finest composers to create works especially for him. He was music director of the National Symphony Orchestra for 17 seasons and enjoys special relationships as conductor with such widely varied orchestras as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Orchestre de Paris. He has conducted the best orchestras on virtually every continent. As a pianist, Maestro Rostropovich has often accompanied his wife, the acclaimed soprano, Galina Vishnevskaya, in recital, and together they have toured the globe.
Mr. Rostropovich has devoted much of his career to the music of the 20th century. With the London Symphony, he has dedicated entire performances to the music of Britten, Shostakovitch, Prokofiev, and Schnittke. During the 1996-97 season, he organized a Shostakovitch Festival in Japan featuring the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. Also during that season, he led concert performances in Moscow and St. Petersburg of Shostakovitch's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk Region, which had not been performed in it s original version since 1932.
Mr. Rostropovich's interest in contemporary music has resulted in his conducting the world premieres of almost 60 orchestral works, as well as three major operas: Schnittke's Gesualdo and Life with an Idiot, and Shchedrin's Lolita. At the Evian Festival in France, he has conducted the premieres of four chamber operas, including Ligeia, by Augusta Read Thomas, and Aquarium, an opera ballet by Gubaidulina.
Maestro Rostropovich holds over 40 honorary degrees and over 30 different nations have bestowed more than 130 major awards and decorations upon him. Some of these honors include: Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Commander of the Legion of Honor of France, membership in the Academy of Arts of the French Institute, (often called the "Forty Immortals"), and the "Preamium Imperiale" from the Japan Art Association. In addition, he was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Kennedy Center Honor of 1992 in the United States. In May 1995, Maestro Rostropovich shared the Polar Prize with Elton John. Prior to leaving the USSR on an exit visa in 1974, he had received the Stalin Prize, had been named a People's Artist of the USSR and was a recipient of the Lenin Prize, the nations' highest honor.
Columbia Artists Management, Inc.
Updated September 1998.
