Boris Kamensky

Who was Boris Kamensky?

Boris Sergeevich Kamensky was an Imperial Russian violinist.

Born in Nikolaev, Ukraine, son of a Director of a Commercial Bank, Kamensky made his first appearance in concerts at the age of nine. He was noticed as a talented violinist by Eugène Ysaÿe and he started taking lessons with him. He went on to study at the Saint Petersburg State Conservatory with Leopold Auer, and he had ensemble classes with Anton Rubinstein; and then he studied with Joseph Joachim in Berlin.

Kamensky was appointed as Concertmaster in the orchestra of the St Petersburg Imperial Russian Musical Society and he became first violin of Tzar Nicholas II. He was one of the founding members of the St Petersburg String Quartet, which was maintained by Helena Pavlovna’s grandson, Duke George Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whilst appearing as soloist at the concerts of the Russian Musical Society in various cities in Russia. The Quartet played old Italian instruments made by the Guarneri family which had taken years for the Duke to find. Despite the exceptional qualities of the instruments, it took over 500 rehearsals before the artists successfully achieved exactly the right equilibrium of tone.