Dmitry Vissarionovich Shebalin (3 August 1930, Moscow — 12 August 2013, Moscow) was a violist, a member of the Borodin Quartet, and a teacher. He was named People's Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1974 and received the State Prize of the USSR in 1986.
Shebalin was born in Moscow into the family of the composer Vissarion Shebalin. Already at the age of six he was composing music, including a work titled Cantata about Stalin. In 1948 he graduated from the Central Music School, where he studied violin with Konstantin Mostras and Yuri Yankelevich, and piano with Nikolai Kuvshinnikov.
He then studied at the Moscow Conservatory in the orchestral faculty. From his second year he specialized in viola, first with Mikhail Terian and then with Vadim Borisovsky. He also studied at the newly opened faculty of symphonic conducting with Aleksandr Gauk. There were only three students in the conducting faculty: Dmitry Shebalin, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, and Yevgeny Svetlanov. While still a conservatory student, he performed with the Grand Symphony Orchestra of All-Union Radio from 1950 to 1952. In 1953 he graduated from the orchestral faculty of the Moscow Conservatory.
From 1952 to 1996, Shebalin performed as a member of the Borodin Quartet, the ensemble with which his name is most closely associated. His long career in the quartet made him one of the important Soviet and Russian chamber musicians of his generation.
Shebalin also had a substantial pedagogical career. At the Moscow Conservatory he taught the viola class, becoming an associate professor in 1969 and a professor in 1996, and he headed the quartet class in the department of chamber ensemble and quartet. From 1980 to 1996 he gave master classes in various countries around the world. Among his students were members of the Čiurlionis Quartet, the Glinka Quartet, another quartet consisting of V. Pervakov, Y. Maiboroda, A. Rider, and D. Tonkonogy, and the ensemble Rusquartet.
Among his distinctions were the Glinka State Prize of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1968 for concert programs of 1965–1966 and 1966–1967, the title Honored Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1967, the title People's Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1974, the State Prize of the USSR in 1986 for concert programs of 1982–1983, and the Order of Friendship in 1994 for services to the state and major contributions to strengthening friendship and cooperation among peoples.
Outside music, Shebalin was a master of sports in tennis and volleyball. His wife, Anna Arkadyevna, was also a violist. He had four children: Fyodor, Elena, Dmitry, and Roman. He died in Moscow and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery beside his parents.
Connections
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