Boris Pergamenshikov

Boris Pergamenshikov was born in 1948 in Leningrad, where he later studied with Emmanuel Fischmann. While still a student at the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Conservatory he began playing concerts with the leading orchestras of Moscow and Leningrad. In 1974 he won the First Prize and Gold Medal at the Fifth International Tchaikovsky Competition, a victory that established internationally his position among leading cellists.

After emigrating to the West in 1977 he intensified his concert activities worldwide and is now a celebrated guest in cities and music festivals from Berlin to Tokyo, and from Salzburg to Jerusalem. His recent schedule has included the festivals in Edinburgh, Salzburg, Berlin, Vienna, Schleswig Holstein, the BBC Prom, and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. He has given concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic (London), Bavarian Radio Symphony, BBC Symphony, NHK Tokyo, Orchestre National de France and the Czech Philharmonic.

Significant to Mr. Pergamenshikov’s artistic development has been the experience of working as soloist or chamber musician with personalities and groups such as Claudio Abbado, the Amadeus and Alban Berg Quartets, Gidon Kremer, Witold Lutoslawski, Yehudi Menuhin, Krzysztof Penderecki, Mstislav Rostropovich, Andras Schiff and Sandar Vegh.

Mr. Pergamenshikov has recorded for Chandos, Decca, EMI, Orfeo, Hänssler and Sony Classical. One of his recent recordings, the Cello Concerto Tout le monde lointain, by Henry Dutilleux, was awarded the Diapason d’Or.

Mr. Pergamenshikov is a professor at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin.