Yuri Bondarev

Yuri Bondarev was born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). After studying violin at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin under Prof. Stephan Picard and Prof. Michael Mücke, he switched to the viola and was accepted into Prof. Tatjana Masurenko’s class at the Leipzig University of Music, where he also earned his concert diploma. Regular solo and chamber music performances have taken him to Austria, Italy, France, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Japan, among other places. As a soloist and chamber musician in various ensembles, he has performed at venues including the Vienna Musikverein, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Milan Conservatory, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, and the Düsseldorf Tonhalle. He gained his first significant orchestral experience with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic, working with conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Kurt Masur, Daniel Harding, Dmitrij Kitajenko, Christopher Hogwood, and Herbert Blomstedt. Since 2009, he has been associate principal violist of the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, and since the 2012–13 winter semester, he has been a lecturer in viola and violin at the Anton Rubinstein Academy in Düsseldorf.