Mstislav Rostropovich

Born into a musical family in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 1927—five years after the country had become part of the Soviet Union—Mstislav Rostropovich is widely considered to be the greatest cellist of the 20th century. His mother began teaching him piano when he was four, and when he was 10 his father, a one-time student of Pablo Casals, took over to teach him cello. Rostropovich made his public debut in 1942, a year before enrolling at the Moscow Conservatory aged 16, where Shostakovich was among his teachers. He performed in other Eastern Bloc countries in the years that followed, and began teaching at the Moscow Conservatory in 1956. He finally launched his international career in 1963, performing in Belgium and the following year in West Germany. Although he mastered a wide repertoire, from Baroque to contemporary, Rostropovich forged particularly close partnerships with several composers, including Britten, Dutilleux, Lutosławski, Penderecki, Berio, and Messiaen, all of whom wrote pieces for him. After frequently clashing with the Soviet regime in the name of free speech and artistic expression, he eventually fled his homeland for the U.S. in 1974, settling in Los Angeles. Between 1977 and 1994, he served as music director and conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. He continued to perform and fight for political freedom until his health gave out, the year before his death in 2007.