Evgeny Strakhov was a Soviet musician and teacher, and a violist. He was born in Moscow on September 2, 1909, and died there on February 10, 1978. He received the Candidate of Art Studies degree in 1938.
Strakhov graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory in 1933 and completed postgraduate study there in 1936, working with Vadim Borisovsky in viola and Boris Sibor in violin. He also studied with Lev Zeitlin and Borisovsky. In 1935, he won second prize at the All-Union Competition of Performing Musicians in Leningrad. He performed with the Moscow State Academic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in 1931–1935 and 1941–1948, then served as soloist and principal violist of the USSR State Symphony Orchestra from 1950 to 1955. He was the first performer in the Soviet Union of works by foreign and Soviet composers.
Strakhov taught viola at the Music School of the Moscow Conservatory from 1933 to 1978, at its Central Music School from 1941 to 1946, and at the conservatory from 1936 to 1978. He became a professor in 1958 and head of the conservatory’s department in 1972. He made about 100 arrangements for viola and flute, including cello sonatas and piano preludes by Dmitri Shostakovich. In 1966, he was named Honored Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. He was buried at Donskoye Cemetery in Moscow.