Dmitry Ferschtman

The Dutch-Russian cellist Dmitry Ferschtman (Moscow, 1945) received his musical education at the most outstanding musical schools in Moscow, first at the Central Special Musical School, and then at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He graduated from the latter with honors in the class of Natalia. Gutman. 
While still a student at the conservatory, he co-founded the Glinka Quartet, which proceeded to win the 1st prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Belgium in 1969. From that moment, the quartet developed an intensive concert activity in the Soviet Union and in various European countries. Also in 1969,  the quartet was introduced to Dmitri Shostakovich. This led to a deep and creative collaboration with the great composer: with the direct participation of Shostakovich, the quartet recorded the 3rd, 8th, 13th and 14th quartets and a piano quintet with Elisabeth Leonskaja.  The last recording under Shostakovich's supervision took place in June 1975, a few weeks before his death.
In 1978, together with his wife the pianist Mila Baslawskaja, Dmitry Ferschtman emigrated to The Netherlands. There he started a new career as a soloist and teacher.
As a soloist he has performed with important conductors as Hans Vonk,  Frans Bruggen, Kent Nagano, Lev Markiz, Kenneth Montgomery and many others. Over the last 40 years, he has recorded over 30 pieces for cello and orchestra for the Dutch radio. In an ensemble with Mila Baslavskaja, cd's were recorded with works by Frank, Fauré, Debussy, Myaskovsky, Shostakovich and Schnittke. His cd with Ronaldo Brautigam with an integral recording of Prokofiev's cello works received the highest rating from Luister magazine (10). With his youngest daughter, violinist Liza Ferschtman, Dmitry released a cd of duet works by Ravel, Kodai and Schulhoff.
Along with his solo activities, Ferschtman took part in numerous chamber music festivals in Germany, France, Japan, Sweden etc where he performed with such outstanding musicians as Philipp Hirschhorn, Pavel Gililov, Nobuko Imai,Natalia Gutman, Vasily Lobanov, Philipp Graffin, Leonidas Kavakos, Frans Helmerson and many others. Ferschtman has been teaching for many years at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Among his students are such significant cellists as Quirine Viersen, Larissa Groeneveld, Doris Hochscheid, Maartje-Maria den Herder, Maja Fridman and many others.
Dmitry Ferschtman plays a modern cello, 2020, made by Gudrun Kremeier, Amsterdam