Mikhail Gotsdiner is a Soviet and Russian violinist and teacher. He was born on 21 February 1953 in Yekaterinburg, then Sverdlovsk.
He was born into the family of Aron (Arnold) Gotsdiner, a violinist, music teacher, author of works on the psychology of music, and Doctor of Psychological Sciences. In 1971, Gotsdiner graduated from the secondary special music school affiliated with the Leningrad Conservatory, where he studied with M. M. Belyakov.
In the same year he entered the Moscow Conservatory, studying with David Oistrakh and Oleh Krysa, and graduated in 1976. He subsequently undertook postgraduate assistant training under the supervision of Valery Klimov.
Gotsdiner became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory, teaching in its violin department under Professor V. M. Ivanov, and also taught violin and string quartet at the Central Music School. He was named Honored Artist of the Russian Federation in 1998.
His competition and festival distinctions include awards at the All-Russian Competition of Performing Musicians in Moscow in 1969, the Béla Bartók International Festival in Budapest in 1975, and the V. Bucchi International Competition in Rome in 1990.
His publications include Brief Essays on the Art of the Violin (2002), as well as articles on teaching violin to students blind from birth, his teacher, and young instrumentalists.