I was born into creative family: my father is a cellist, and my mother is a ballet dancer. Although I had a physical build for the ballet, from early childhood I have looked with admiration at my father turning everyone’s heads while walking proudly through the streets of Alma-Ata with his large white cello case. It was no surprise to anyone that after three generations of celloist on my father’s I too chose to learn CELLO!..

The fate determined that I had to move countries and continents, meet and say goodbye to people and places. Through this roller-coaster of change my cello was the only constant!  Friends always said: “Eldar, you seem to be married to your cello!”  And indeed, my instrument accompanied me in all the corners of the planet. Once I performed a concert in Tristan da Cunha, the most remote inhabited place on the globe, whose residents have never heard live classical music before.

 I have been very lucky in my life to share the stage with outstanding musicians. I will forever cherish this unforgettable meetings in my memory.  Perhaps the most memorable encounter of my youth took place in London in 2000. I was lucky enough to perform with the famous Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester, and the legendary Romanian pianist Radu Lupu was the soloist at the time.  Once in a break between rehearsals, he started playing Brahms cello sonata in e-minor and looked at me as if inviting me to join. I quickly picked it up and we played the whole piece absolutely from memory.  After our spontaneous duet performance, he said that he had never read the music for this piece and picked it up by ear, to which I, the young musician I was, complimented the maestro: “Mr. Lupu, you have a very good ear!”  We laughed heartily… It’s hard to put into words what I felt during this amazing moment of pure serendipity and because it was so spontaneous without any planning or rehearsals I felt amazing freedom and lightness, forgeting about the physical world. It was as if I was floating in the air!

Another moment of pure joy that comes to my mind is performing Bach’s Goldberg’s Variations for string trio with the world-famous violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky. It was a part of a grand tour, which involved exciting journey, crossing two oceans: from Acapulco to Tahiti and from Cape Town to Buenos Aires.  We performed the famous “Goldberg Variations” in the version for trio and chamber orchestra throughout the tour.

It was also unforgettable experience working on the symphonic poem “Don Quixote” by Richard Strauss under the direction of the Austrian cellist and conductor Heinrich Schiff and the work on the cello concerto by Joseph Haydn with maestro Reinhard Goebel. 

 Throughout all these remarkable performances and musical collaborations, I was privileged, to have an opportunity to play outstanding instruments by Amati, Stradivari and Montagnana. However, among them one instrument always stands out. It has a special place in my heart, which is why I often refer to it as my “cello-wife”, a Parisian born in 1870 with tart character, but subtle poetic soul.