Arseniy Gazizov was born in 1999 in Saint Petersburg. He received his professional musical education at the Secondary Special Music School affiliated with the Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory, where he studied in the class of the Honoured Artist of Russia and Associate Professor Alexander Shilo. He is a graduate of the Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory, where he also completed a postgraduate assistantship and advanced training program under the guidance of the same teacher. Since 2022, he has been pursuing a master’s degree at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin, studying in the class of Professor Gunars Upatnieks. Also since 2022, he has been a member of the Honoured Collective of Russia — the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia named after Dmitri Shostakovich. In 2020, Arseniy Gazizov became the winner of the First All-Russian Competition for Performers on Orchestral String Instruments Young Virtuosos of Russia (Rostov-on-Don), and was awarded the Second Prize in the “Virtuosos” category at the international online double bass competition J. M. Sperger International Double Bass Quarantine Challenge (Germany). In 2021, he became the winner of the Fourth All-Russian Competition for Symphony Orchestra Musicians in the category “String Instruments: Double Bass” (Moscow). In 2022, he was awarded the First Prize at the International Stravinsky Competition. In 2023, he became a laureate of the Third Prize at the International Double Bass Competition in Namur (Belgium). In 2024, he was awarded the Grand Prix as well as a Special Prize for Technical Mastery at the London Young Musicians Competition (online). In 2025, he became a laureate of the Second Prize at the 14th International Double Bass Competition named after Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (Slovakia). He has been a participant in the concert and educational programs of the Saint Petersburg Music House since 2020.

Saint Petersburg Music House (SPMH): The Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf Competition in Slovakia became a very successful conclusion to the outgoing year. Could you tell us about this achievement?
Arseniy Gazizov: I live by a very simple principle: if there are opportunities, one should never let them slip away — never turn them down in favor of rest or entertainment. Perhaps this is not always the most correct approach, but it is better to do something and regret it than to regret not having done it at all. Still, before this particular competition, I actually thought I would make an exception. At that moment, traveling there seemed absolutely pointless to me. The reason was that immediately before the competition, the Honoured Collective of Russia, where I work, had tour performances in Vietnam that lasted almost a full week. This meant that for an entire week right before the competition I was unable to practice properly, because practicing on an orchestral double bass while on tour is not only unhelpful for solo preparation, but can even be detrimental — the orchestral and solo double basses have different tunings. At best, one can play a few technical exercises or scales. Then, while everyone else was flying home after the tour, I was heading straight to the competition. I took an unfamiliar double bass, had just one day to get used to it — and that was it, time to go on stage and perform. In the end, it was my friends who persuaded me to go. I had prepared for the competition anyway, and regardless of the outcome, it would have been wrong to miss such an opportunity. I am very happy that I did go: I met wonderful double bass players and encountered professors whom I have known since the days when they came to Russia for double bass festivals organized by my teacher, Alexander Shilo.

SPMH: How did you begin studying music, and when did the double bass appear in your life?
Arseniy Gazizov: There are no professional musicians in my family. However, my attraction to music manifested itself from my very earliest years: I loved singing and had a good sense of intonation. At the age of four, I began studying the piano with a teacher who came to our home for private lessons. My grandfather, who is a scientist and an oceanologist, has a friend whose wife is Elena Matusovskaya, an operatic répétiteur at the Mariinsky Theatre. It was she who introduced me to a teacher from the Secondary Special Music School — Natalia Iosifovna Broverman, with whom I later studied the piano. Natalia Iosifovna very much wanted me to become either a pianist or a cellist, but I stubbornly aspired to play the violin. And do you know why? This is the funniest part. There is a wonderful Soviet film by director Leonid Nechayev called The Adventures of Buratino. In that film, there is a talking Cricket who plays the violin — and I desperately wanted to play that melody myself. In general, the film has marvelous music and songs, many of which I still remember by heart to this day. So I began studying the violin with Larisa Alexandrovna Baranova. At around the same age, my parents also took me to the Glinka Choral School, where I was ready to be accepted, but as I have already said, I wanted specifically to study an instrument. In the end, I played the violin for nine years, and in the first years quite successfully. Then came a difficult teenage period — reluctance to practice, laziness. Very often at that age children give up music altogether, and sometimes violinists or cellists are transferred to the double bass and given a second chance. In 2014, I also switched to the double bass — and it was love at first sight. I remember my very first specialized lesson extremely well, when I came to Alexander Alexeyevich, and he began showing me the positions: “Look, first and second fingers — a semitone; first and fourth — a whole tone. Got it? All right, now play the scale.” I was struck by his attitude toward students, by his dedication and his love for the instrument. And that was precisely what he passed on to me — what he infected me with, in the very best sense of the word.

SPMH: Is it possible to cultivate a love for music?
Arseniy Gazizov: Yes, it is possible — just as with any kind of upbringing, the most effective way is education by personal example. That is exactly how my principal works. And if we are not talking about students, but about children, then today there exists a great variety of wonderful concerts designed for children of different ages, which can genuinely awaken interest in and love for music. We are also actively involved in this work together with Mariinsky Theatre artist Maria Alexandrovna Shilo and the double bass quartet Quattrobass: we organize truly remarkable concerts for children. I love playing for them — they are the most grateful audience imaginable. But I beg you: parents, please do not take children to adult, serious music. Even adults are not always ready for it! My mother once told me how, when she was a child, she was forced to go to the opera — she was taken to Boris Godunov. That is not what children need. As a rule, they find it boring and unengaging. When we perform some long symphony with the orchestra, I sometimes notice children in the audience who are asleep or clearly bored, and it makes me sad. That is not how they will come to love music. Children need to be brought to concerts created specifically for children. And, by the way, adults will find those concerts interesting as well.

SPMH: What does your experience of studying in Germany give you?
Arseniy Gazizov: I enrolled in the master’s program at the Berlin University of the Arts – Hanns Eisler School of Music after graduating from the Conservatory. At the same time, I was admitted to the University of Music in Detmold, to the postgraduate assistantship program of our Conservatory, and to the Honoured Collective of Russia. I simply could not bring myself to make a single choice, and in the end I declined only the studies in Detmold, while attempting to combine everything else. Since my work in the orchestra, concert activity, and studies did not allow me to travel to Germany as frequently as I would have liked, I extended my studies: instead of the standard two years, I am studying for four. I will be completing my program this coming summer. What is interesting is that the schools themselves are similar in many respects. One of the very first double bass professors at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory was Václav Bech. He introduced the principles of the Czech double bass school into our tradition, and since then this school has largely prevailed. My professor in Berlin, Gunars Upatnieks, is Latvian. He first studied in Riga with Sergei Brinmus (who himself also studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory), then Gunars studied for two years with Alexander Shilo and was even planning to enroll with us. However, in the end he left for Brno, in the Czech Republic, to study with Miloslav Jelínek. Some time later, he won a position in the Berlin Philharmonic, began teaching in Berlin, and moved there permanently. Because the roots of our double bass schools are essentially the same, the principles of sound production, musical thinking, and technique largely coincide with what Alexander Alexeyevich taught me. However, Gunars approaches these principles from a different angle and allows me, so to speak, to come at them “from the other side.” This greatly broadens one’s horizons and has enabled me to grow significantly in professional terms, by combining in my mind everything that I am taught by both professors. I have a basis for comparison: I have taken many master classes with other professors, and it sometimes happens that they teach completely opposite things. Of course, there are no absolute rights or wrongs here — music is a subjective matter, and one must choose what suits oneself best. That is why I am very happy that my teachers’ views on how the instrument should be played largely coincide, and that my own approach aligns with theirs. At the same time, there have been several occasions when, on certain questions, they told me absolutely contradictory things. At those moments, my brain quite literally “melted,” because both teachers are extremely convincing, and I trust both of them completely. In the end, however, I managed to find a compromise in these matters — and that, too, has contributed to my professional growth.

SPMH: Does your teacher from your school years and the Conservatory, Alexander Shilo, continue to be your mentor? And more broadly, does a musician who leads an independent concert life need such guidance?
Arseniy Gazizov: Alexander Alexeyevich is far more to me than simply a mentor. His level of involvement in the lives and destinies of his students, the depth of his love for his profession and for music itself — all of this evokes in me immense respect and a genuine desire to follow his example. He cultivates in us not only musical skills, but also human qualities. He instills not only a love for music and for the double bass, but also integrity, honesty with oneself and with others. I formally completed my studies with him in 2024, yet to this day, before performances, I still go to play for him, and after every concert I call him and tell him how everything went. And sometimes I come to see him simply to talk. When you practice on your own for a long time, your ear can become dulled, so I believe that any musician needs someone they can play for before a performance — someone who can evaluate them from the outside with a fresh, unbiased perspective. It is extremely important that one’s views on interpretation and performance coincide, and that there is mutual trust. I also regularly turn to him for advice in situations that may not relate directly to performance itself, but that concern my life more broadly.

SPMH: Since 2020, you have been collaborating with the Saint Petersburg Music House. Was it difficult to become part of the Musical Team of Russia? And what has performing within this ensemble brought into your concert life?
Arseniy Gazizov: The main difficulties arise during the preparation process — in daily practice and study. When I perform at an audition or a competition, that is already the result of the work that has been done beforehand. For me, preparation for serious competitions and concerts means dedicating virtually all of my time — apart from my work in the orchestra — to practice. On weekends, that can mean from eight or nine in the morning until ten or eleven at night, of course with breaks. Some colleagues say that if you practice “with your head,” three or four hours are enough. I disagree with that, because there have been periods in my life when I was preparing for several competitions in a row, and the sheer amount of music alone — if everything is played at concert tempo — amounted to around three hours. When I applied to Berlin, for example, there were more than thirty applicants for just two places. Yet playing the audition itself is not difficult. Perhaps only the emotional tension and inner stress during competitions, auditions, and concerts can truly be called “difficulties.”
The projects of the Saint Petersburg Music House offer the opportunity to perform as a soloist, which is incredibly important for me, because even many double bass players do not regard the double bass as a solo instrument, and finding opportunities for solo performances is extremely challenging. I want to present the double bass to audiences as a solo instrument that is in no way inferior to the violin or the piano — and it seems that I am succeeding in this. Very often after concerts, listeners come up to me and admit that they never expected it to be possible to play the double bass in such a way.

SPMH: In the programs of the Music House, you often perform works by Bottesini. For you personally, what is the phenomenon of this musician and his compositions?
Arseniy Gazizov: Bottesini’s music forms the core foundation of our repertoire, which, by its nature, is not particularly extensive. Bottesini himself was a renowned musician — a conductor and a composer — and he even appeared in Saint Petersburg several times as a solo double bass player. His music can, at times, evoke associations with the works of Giuseppe Verdi, with whom he was personally close and maintained a friendship. At the same time, Bottesini’s compositions reveal the expressive potential of the double bass with remarkable depth. On the one hand, they present it as a virtuoso instrument capable of dazzling technical brilliance; on the other hand, they unveil it as an astonishingly gentle and soft instrument, endowed with a rich, profound, and resonant timbre.

SPMH: The double bass is a very striking “partner” on stage because of its scale and physical presence. Do you ever feel the desire to add a touch of dramatic action to your playing?
Арсений Газизов: Almost never. I present the double bass to audiences as a serious solo instrument, not as a circus attraction. A musician should express feelings and evoke emotions in listeners through performance itself, not through additional stage actions. Everything must be sincere; exaggerated emotions and deliberately expressive body movements are simply not my way. That said, such an approach may suit others perfectly — I do not judge anyone. I am speaking purely for myself, and there will always be an audience for every format. At the same time, when I teach children at a music school, I do make use of the visual impressiveness of the double bass, especially during the very first introductory lessons. I show them how the instrument can be turned around, tapped on, how one can play glissandi, con legno, and many other fun and engaging tricks. If one is performing a piece in which there is not a great deal of musical material, but where the main task is to create a kind of “show” and demonstrate virtuosity or technical mastery — for example, Bottesini’s Carnival of Venice — then I do allow for a certain degree of dramatic action. Even then, however, I still prefer to express it through the music itself rather than through external physical gestures.

SPMH: How do you feel about humor on the classical concert stage?
Arseniy Gazizov: It is acceptable — but only in moderation. Everything depends on the work being performed and on the genre. At children’s concerts, which we organize ourselves, it is simply impossible to do without humor.

SPMH: When performing works that were not originally written for the double bass, do you ever feel concerned about inevitable comparisons with the original version? Is it difficult, for example, to “outplay” the cello in Shostakovich’s Concerto?
Arseniy Gazizov: No, I do not feel any concern of that kind. And I have no desire whatsoever to “outplay” the cello. I simply love the music, I love cello repertoire, and I want to perform it — so I do, even though it is technically more difficult on the double bass than on the cello. At the same time, I always study these works from the original scores and change almost nothing, in order not to lose the composer’s original concept and intention. Moreover, this approach brings many advantages for the overall technical and artistic development of double bass performance. In the past, no one would even have imagined that Shostakovich’s Concerto could be played on the double bass at all, and Saint-Saëns’s Concerto was traditionally performed an octave or a fourth lower. By performing such works, we can significantly expand the double bass repertoire and give these compositions a new depth of sound and interpretation. This represents a new level in double bass performance practice. When contemporary composers see that the double bass is capable of performing on a level comparable to the cello — while offering, in my view, an even deeper and more interesting timbre — they will, I believe, be far more inclined to write music specifically for the instrument.

Interview by Tatyana Mikhailova