Fedor Belugin

Fedor’s graduation from the Moscow State Conservatory named after Tchaikovsky gave his career a boost. In 2005, while still a student, he was invited to play with the Shostakovich String Quartet. After the debut Fedor Belugin made in the Great Hall of the State Conservatory he was invited to be a permanent member of the renowned Quartet. A year later Fedor joined Master’s program at the Moscow State Conservatory named after Tchaikovsky to study with professor I. Kandinskaya. Along with his academic activities he was trusted to teach Quartet classes for the Moscow State Conservatory being one of the youngest teachers there. 2008 Fedor Belugin together with the pianist Alexander Osminin became the Winner of the 5th International Duo Competition (Sweden, Katrineholm), which was the unanimous decision of the jury.

This victory induced active touring – in 2009 Belugin and Osminin made a major concert tour all over Russia, giving over 40 performances at best concert halls anywhere between Murmansk to Uzhno-Sakhalinsk. Born in 1982 in the town of Krasnoyarsk-26 (Siberia), Fedor took his first lessons from his father, Zhores Nikolaevich Belugin, who, due to his teachers M. Reyentovich and A. Leshinsky, inherited from two prominent violin schools of the 20th century represented by L. Auer and K. Flesh. Traditions of two great violin teachers of the 20th century that Fedor learned as a child, are evident from his style – the musician is striving to make his viola sound as expressively as human voice. “Brilliant training…” – professor G. Odinets. “Scale of a true artist…” – professor M. Benumov.

The first success came when, guided by his father, budding talent of 13won the Grand-prix at the Young violinist competition among forbidden towns of Russia. The young musician continued his formal training in Krasnoyarsk with professor M. Benumov, Merited artist of Russia. Between 1998 and 2001 Fedor was the student of the Musical College under the Moscow State Conservatory, where he was trained under M. Keselman. Starting from 2001 Fedor Belugin was the student of the Moscow Conservatory. There he made a full course of viola under professor G. Odinets and chamber ensemble under professor I. Kandinskaya. Belugin’s genuine gift and academic excellence were well acknowledged while he was still a student: he won International Competition “Classical Legasy” (Moscow, 2005) in two nominations: Viola Solo and Chamber Music. He was also granted the “Russian Art” scholarship. Since 2005 Belugin has been actively involved with the State Shostakovich String Quartet.

It is with them that he performed 15 string quartets by Dmitry Shostakovich in Moscow and in Paris. In 2007 M. Rostropovich invited the Quartet to take part in Baku festival in memory of D. Shostakovich. Winning the International Duo Competition made the geography of Belugin’s tour performances expand significantly to include numerous cities and towns in Russia, Germany, France, Belgium, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, Poland, the USA, Sweden, Italy. His repertoire includes almost every piece of music ever composed for viola and also the music he has done arrangements for, his main interest being in arranging for viola some violin and cello romantic pieces and 20th century music – sonatas by S. Frank’s, S. Rachmaninov, A. Grechaninov, R. Schumann, music by J. Brahms, A. A. Dvořák, P. Tchaikovsky, C. De Bussy, A. Piazzolla, E. Bloch. Fedor Belugin has enjoyed originative interaction with such artists as N. Gutman, A. Rudin, I. Kandinskaya, E. Virsaladze, A. Baranov, D. Avstrikh, A. Vinitsky, G. Zhislin, V. Kraynev, T. Alikhanov, S. Kravchenko, P. Vernikov, S. Girshenko and conductors – T. Currentzis, M. Benumov, P. Bellugi, Е. Bushkov, M. Arkadiev, I. Lerman, A. Vorontsov.