Leonid Finkelshteyn

Lecturer

Bassist Leonid Finkelshteyn (Lecturer) enjoys an active career as a performer and teacher. Currently principal bassist of the North Carolina Symphony, which he joined in 1996, and the Eastern Music Festival Orchestra in North Carolina since 1999, Mr. Finkelshteyn also serves on the faculty of the Univeristy of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, and the Eastern Music Festival in addition to maintaining a large private studio.

As a soloist, he has made numerous concerto appearances with the North Carolina Symphony, Young Artists Orchestra at the Eastern Music Festival, East Carolina University Orchestra and the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra in Wisconsin including works by Bottesini, Bruch, Koussevitsky and Tubin.

Mr. Finkelshteyn has also performed the North American premiere of Gareth Glyn’s Microncerto and the world premiere of J.Mark Scearce’s Antaeus, a concerto for double bass and orchestra which the North Carolina Symphony commissioned for Mr. Finkelshteyn. In February 2018 Mr. Finkelshteyn performed a premiere of the Double Bass Concerto by Terry Mizesko, dedicated specifically for him.

Upon arriving here in the U.S., Mr. Finkelshteyn attended the Aspen Music Festival where he won the E. Nakamichi Double Bass Competition, performing the Koussevitsky Concerto with the Festival orchestra. Other artistic pursuits have included tours with the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Hungarica. In addition, Mr. Finkelshteyn has appeared with the St. Louis, Cincinnati, Dallas Symphonies and Mostly Music Festival as guest principal Bassist.

He has also performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Milwaukee Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and appeared with the All Star Orchestra under the direction of Gerard Schwarz as part of an award-winning series of programs for PBS.

Mr. Finkelshteyn has performed with a number of conductors throughout his career, namely, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Alan Gilbert, Marris Jansons, Neeme and Paavo Jarvi, Louis Langree, Lorin Maazel, Andrew Manze, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Gerard Schwarz, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Yuri Temirkanov and Osmo Vanska.

An avid chamber musician, Mr. Finkelshteyn has participated in the South Hampton Arts Festival in NY, the Four Seasons Festival at East Carolina University, the Eastern Music Festival Chamber Music Series, and the North Carolina Symphony Chamber Music series.

He has collaborated with his brother, cellist Ilya Finkelshteyn, Julia Fischer, Mark Kosover, Adam Neiman, Awadagin Pratt, Julian Shwarz and Elina Vahala among others.

A committed teacher, Mr. Finkelshteyn was invited to give master classes at Yale University and in NYC for students from the Manhattan School of Music and the Mannes College of Music, Penn State and NC School of Arts among others.

He makes a point of being involved within his community as well, leading sectionals for local Youth Philharmonic Orchestras and the NC All State Orchestra. In addition, Mr. Finkelshteyn works with local music teachers with their double bass students offering master classes and sectionals.

A native of Leningrad in the former Soviet Union, he joined the Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Philharmonic at only 19 years of age, while still a student at the Leningrad Conservatory from which he earned a M.M., graduating with honors.

His primary teachers were Peter Weinblatt and Sergei Akopov. Eventually, he became principal bassist of the Symphony Orchestra and was a prize winner of the Soviet Union Bass Competition before emigrating to the U.S. in 1990.

https://www.leonidfinkelshteyn.com/