Alexander Vasilievich Ivashkin (Russian: Александр Васильевич Ивашкин), (17 August 1948 – 31 January 2014) was a Russian cellist, writer, academic and conductor. He was a professor of music and the Chair of Performance Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London since 1999, the director of the Centre for Russian Music, and the curator of the Alfred Schnittke Archive. In 1996, he published the first English-language biography of the composer Alfred Schnittke.
Ivashkin was born in Blagoveshchensk on 17 August 1948. At age 5, he was enrolled in the Gnessin School for Gifted Children in Moscow. He first played piano, and cello was a necessary part of his school curriculum. His education in cello and piano continued at the Gnessin Institute and Moscow Conservatory, where he was instructed by Boris Khaikin, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, and Valery Polyansky. Ivashkin first met Alfred Schnittke in the early 1960s, when they were neighbors in Moscow.
Ivashkin completed an M.Mus. in cello, piano, and historical musicology from the Russian Music Academy, a D.M.A. from the Russian Music Academy, a Ph.D. from the Russian State Institute for Arts Studies, and a D.Mus. from the Russian State Institute for Arts Studies.
In 1978, Ivashkin became co-principal cellist of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and founded the Bolshoi Soloists, a new chamber orchestra. In the 1980s, he taught at the Gnessen Institute and then left the Soviet Union in 1990 for a teaching position at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. He began his writing career as a music critic, and his first musicology book was about Charles Ives.
In 1995, Ivashkin and his wife, the cellist Natalia Pavlutskaya, founded the Adam International Cello Festival and Competition. In 1996, he published the first English-language biography of Alfred Schnittke.
In 1999, he became a professor of music at Goldsmiths, University of London. He was the director of the Centre for Russian Music at Goldsmiths, and he continued his career as a cellist. He became the curator of Alfred Schnittke Archive at Goldsmiths, which began when he arrived, and he was the editor-in-chief of the Schnittke Collected Works Critical Edition.
In 1999 he founded a series of research and performance seminars/symposia and international concert series at the Centre for Russian Music. He was also artistic director of annual festivals in London, including The VTB Capital Prize for Young Cellists.
As an author and editor, Ivashkin published more than twenty books, and more than 200 articles in Russia, Germany, Italy, the US, the UK and Japan.
Ivashkin collaborated with composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Giya Kancheli, Rodion Shchedrin, Nikolai Korndorf, Dmitri Smirnov, Elena Firsova, Alexander Raskatov, and Alfred Schnittke, as well as John Cage, George Crumb, Mauricio Kagel, Peter Sculthorpe, Brett Dean, Arvo Pärt, Vladimir Tarnopolsky, Augusta Read Thomas, James MacMillan, Lyell Cresswell, Roger Redgate, Gabriel Prokofiev and Gillian Whitehead.
Ivashkin made commercial recordings with a variety of labels, including Chandos, Naxos, Melodiya, RCA, Brilliant Classics, and Toccata Classics. His recorded work includes complete cello music composed by Sergei Rakhmaninov, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Nikolai Roslavets, Alexander Tcherepnin, Sofia Gubaidulina, Giya Kancheli, and Alfred Schnittke.
The instruments played by Ivashkin included a 1710 Giuseppe Guarneri 'filius Andrea' cello that was purchased by Chris Marshall from J & A Beare in London in 2000 and provided to Ivashkin as a permanent loan. After Ivashkin's death, the cello was named the 'Ivashkin Joseph Guarneri filius andreae of 1710' cello in honor of Ivashkin and provided to cellist Soo Bae as a five-year loan.
In 1969, Ivashkin married fellow musician Natalia Pavlutskaya, who survived her husband, who died of pancreatic cancer on 31 January 2014.
"Russian Elegy". Original pieces for cello and piano written by Russian composers from the 18th to the 20th century. With Ingripd Wahlberg, piano. Ode Records MANU 1426, 1993.
"Music for cello solo". World premiere recordings. Melodyia SUCD 10–005566, 1994.
"Alfred Schnittke. Four Hymns for cello and ensemble". With the Bolshoi Soloists. [The Third Hymn is dedicated to A.Ivashkin.] Melodiya SUCD 00061 – Russia; Mobile Fidelity MFCD 915 – US). World premiere recording. New releases: VoxBox, US, 1994,1996. Diapason D’Or Award ( France)
"Alfred Schnittke, Music for Cello and Piano". World premiere recordings. With Tamas Vesmas. Ode Records MANU 1480, 1995.
"Sergei Prokofiev. Complete Music for Cello and Piano". With Tamas Vesmas. Ode Records MANU 1414, 1996.
"Bohiuslav Martinu. Chamber Music". Naxos, 8.553916, 1996.