Boris Fishman was a Soviet violinist and music teacher. He was born on 12 August 1906 in Uman, Russian Empire, and died in Moscow on 19 February 1965.
He studied violin with Lev Tseitlin at the Moscow Conservatory, graduating in 1929, and also studied with Pyotr Stolyarsky. While still a student, he won the Persimfans competition in 1927 for performances of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Taneyev’s Concert Suite. In 1933 he received first prize at the First All-Union Competition for Performing Musicians.
From 1932 to 1950, Fishman was a soloist of the Moscow Conservatory and gave concerts in numerous cities across the Soviet Union. In November 1937, during a Moscow festival of Soviet music, he became the first performer in the Soviet Union to play Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto.
Fishman taught at the Kyiv Conservatory from 1949 to 1954 and became an associate professor in 1950. Among his notable pupils was Vladimir Klimov. In his final years, he worked with the Symphony Orchestra of the Ministry of Cinematography. He died of a heart attack at the age of 58.