Sergei Istomin
Cellist and viola da gamba player Sergei Istomin, educated partly in the U.S., has been active in various countries, including Canada, France, and Belgium. He has recorded for Analekta, Passacaille, and other labels.
Istomin was born in the Soviet Union in 1959. He is apparently unrelated to pianist Eugene Istomin. He began studying the cello at age six at Moscow's Gnessin Institute, a music school for gifted children, where he studied with Vera Birina. He remained there through the completion of his bachelor's degree and then went on to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow for a master's degree, studying with Valentin Feighin. Istomin then moved to the U.S. to study the viola da gamba at the Oberlin Conservatory and the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute; there, his principal teacher was Catharina Meints Caldwell. He wrote a doctoral thesis on Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme. He also had the chance to study with the pioneering Baroque cello and viol player August Wenzinger, who, by that time in his career, accepted few students. Since then, his performing and recording career has been divided between traditional repertory (on a modern cello) and historically oriented works on Baroque cello and viola da gamba. Istomin appeared as a gambist on the Music & Arts album An Hour with C.P.E. Bach in 1999. His solo debut came in 2003 on the Analekta label with Abel, Schenk, Telemann: Solos for viola da gamba. Istomin spent part of his career in Canada and lists his nationalities as Russian, Canadian, and French.
Istomin has performed with major early music groups in Europe and North America, including the Anima Eterna Brugge Orchestra, Tafelmusik Orchestra in Canada, and Il Gardellino Ensemble. He has appeared widely at leading European festivals such as the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Leipzig Bach Festival, and several in Belgium, including the Festival van Vlaanderen. He is a research associate at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and Royal Conservatory in Belgium, where he lived as of the early 2020s. Istomin recorded several Romantic cello works for the Passacaille label in the 2010s, including the Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33 (2019). In 2022, he moved to Challenge Classics for a recording of Bach's Sonatas for viola da gamba, BWV 1027-1029.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography
10 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Liszt: Pièces tardives
Jos Van Immerseel, Sergei Istomin
Classical - Released by Zig-Zag Territoires on Sep 23, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Virtuoso Solos for Viola da Gamba
Classical - Released by Analekta on Dec 20, 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sonatas for Viola da Gamba, BWV 1027-1029
Sergei Istomin, Viviana Sofronitsky
Classical - Released by Challenge Classics on May 6, 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach
Luc Beauséjour, Karina Gauvin, Sergei Istomin
Classical - Released by Analekta on Jan 31, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme in A Major for Cello and Fortepiano
Claire Chevallier, Sergei Istomin, Martin Reiman
Chamber Music - Released by Passacaille on Dec 3, 2018
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Complete Works for Cello and Piano
Vivian Sofronitsky, Sergei Istomin
Classical - Released by Passacaille on Feb 8, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Six Suites for Solo Cello
Classical - Released by Analekta on Jan 31, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Piano Trios
Laszlo Paulik, Sergei Istomin, Viviana Sofronitsky
Chamber Music - Released by Centaur Records, Inc. on Oct 14, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mendelssohn: Complete Works for Cello and Pianoforte
Sergei Istomin, Viviana Sofronitsky
Classical - Released by Passacaille on Oct 8, 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: Cello Concertos
Sergei Istomin, Apollo Ensemble
Classical - Released by Passacaille on Sep 1, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo