Honoured Artist of Russia, Associate Professor
Roman Balashov was born in Moscow. He graduated from The School of Music of Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory in 1986, where he studied with L. Gushchina, and from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory in 1992, where he studied viola with Yu. Bashmet, string quartet with M. Kopelman and A. Galkovsky, and chamber ensemble with T. Alikhanov. From 1992 to 1995, he was a postgraduate student at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory under the supervision of V.Y. Grigoriev, specialising in music performance.
In 1989, he took part in workshops conducted by H. Rilling at the Bach Academy of Music in Stuttgart. Since 2004, he has been a member of the Artistic Committee of the December Evenings of Sviatoslav Richter Festival. He has organized and drown up the programme for a series of chamber music recitals at the Moscow State Academic Philharmonic and the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory.
Since 1997, he taught at the Y. Bashmet Viola Department of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (since 2006 - the Viola Department). Between 1998 and 2004, he taught at the School of Music of Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory.
He is a returning participant of the Yuri Bashmet International Viola Competition in Moscow in 1994, 1997, 1999, 2001, and 2006, and a permanent jury member at the Verbier Festival Orchestra auditions.
He regularly gives master classes in Rousse, Bulgaria, and at the Yekaterinburg Conservatoire. He has given master classes in Kronberg, Germany; San Francisco, USA; Hong Kong; Turin, Italy; Madrid, Spain; St Petersburg and Perm, Russia. He has been a violist, conductor and director of the Soloists of Moscow Chamber Ensemble conducted by Yuri Bashmet since 1992.
