Fyodor Druzhinin

Who was Fyodor Druzhinin?

Fyodor Serafimovich Druzhinin, also Fedor, was a Soviet violist, composer and music teacher.

Druzhinin studied viola at the Moscow Central Music School with Nikolai Sokolov and at the Moscow Conservatory with Vadim Borisovsky. In 1957, he won first place at the All-Union Competition of Musicians in Moscow. He replaced Borisovsky as violist of the Beethoven Quartet in 1964.

From 1980, Druzhinin was the head of the viola department at the Moscow Conservatory. Among his students are many noted violists such as Yuri Bashmet, Yuri Tkanov, Alexander Bobrovsky and Svetlana Stepchenko.

Druzhinin composed several works for viola. His Fantasia for Viola and Orchestra is best known. He worked closely with Dmitri Shostakovich and other composers such as Mieczysław Weinberg, Alfred Schnittke, Andrei Volkonsky, Roman Ledenyov. Shostakovich wrote his last composition for Druzhinin, the Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op.147. Other dedications include Concerto-Poem for viola and orchestra by Ledenyov, Viola Sonata and Viola Concerto by Grigory Frid, and Weinberg's Sonata No.1 for unaccompanied viola.