Fyodor Druzhinin (6 April 1932 – 1 July 2007) was a Soviet and Russian violist, composer, and music educator. He was born and died in Moscow. He studied at the Central Music School with N. B. Sokolov and graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1955, where he studied viola with Vadim Borisovsky.
Druzhinin became a soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic in 1957. In 1964, he succeeded Borisovsky as violist in the Beethoven Quartet and remained with the ensemble until 1975. He worked closely with Dmitri Shostakovich, whose final composition, the Sonata for Viola and Piano, Op. 147 (1975), was written for him. He also collaborated with Moisey Weinberg, Alfred Schnittke, Andrey Volkonsky, Grigory Frid, and Roman Ledenev. Druzhinin gave the first performance in Russia of Bartók’s Viola Concerto and played works by Hindemith, Enescu, and Honegger, as well as music by Bach, Mozart, Weber, Schubert, Schumann, Berlioz, Glinka, and Rubinstein.
He began teaching at the Moscow Conservatory in 1958, became head of its viola and harp department in 1978, and was appointed professor in 1980. His students included Yuri Bashmet, Yuri Tkanov, Alexander Bobrovsky, Elena Ozol, Svetlana Stepchenko, Ekaterina Markova, Margarita Spiridonova, and Negmetulla Karimov. His compositions include the Sonata for Solo Viola (1959), Variations for Solo Viola (1968), Fantasy for Viola and Orchestra (1982; revised 1992), and Symphony for Two Violas, published in 2003. He also wrote songs, romances, and sacred choral works.
Druzhinin published his memoirs, Memoirs: Pages of Life and Creativity, in 2001. The book includes recollections of Shostakovich, Schnittke, Igor Stravinsky, Maria Yudina, Anna Akhmatova, and colleagues in the Beethoven Quartet; a French-language edition appeared in 2006. He won first prize at the All-Union Competition for Performing Musicians in Moscow in 1957, was named Honored Artist of the RSFSR in 1966, and received the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1988.