Viktor Tretyakov
Viktor Tretyakov is a Soviet and Russian violinist, conductor, and music educator. Born on 17 October 1946 in Krasnoyarsk, he is the son of a military musician and is a representative of the Russian violin school.
At the age of seven, Tretyakov entered the Irkutsk music school, where he studied violin with Yefim Gordin. From 1954 he attended the children’s music school of the Music College affiliated with the Moscow Conservatory, transferring in 1959 to the Central Music School at the Moscow Conservatory. He graduated in 1965, then studied at the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory, graduating in 1970, and completed postgraduate study there in 1973 under Yuri Yankelevich.
In 1966, Tretyakov won first prize at the Third International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, an achievement that opened broad touring opportunities. Since 1969, he has been a soloist of the Moscow State Philharmonic. His extensive recordings, numbering more than fifty, have been issued by labels including Melodiya, Sony/BMG, Live Classics, Olympia, and Brilliant Classics.
As a chamber musician, he has performed with Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, and other prominent musicians. With Yuri Bashmet, Natalia Gutman, and Viktor Lobanov, he formed a piano quartet that has performed regularly in European capitals. He has appeared internationally both as a soloist and ensemble musician, collaborated with leading conductors and performers, and taken part in numerous international festivals. His tours have included the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Austria, Poland, Japan, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Belgium, Scandinavia, and Latin America.
From 1983 to 1991, Tretyakov was chief conductor of the USSR State Chamber Orchestra. He taught at the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory from 1983 to 2001, serving as head of the violin department from 1983 and as a professor from 1990. Since 1996, he has been a professor at the Cologne University of Music. His students include international competition prizewinners Sergei Stadler, Natalia Likhopoi, Ivan Pochekin, Ilya Kaler, and Daniil Austrich, and he is regularly invited to give master classes in various countries.
Tretyakov chaired the violin jury of the International Tchaikovsky Competition from 1986 to 1994 and has served on juries for international competitions in Brussels, Hanover, and Helsinki. In 1990, he initiated the establishment of the Yuri Yankelevich Music Foundation and became its president. That year he also helped establish the Association of Prizewinners of the International Tchaikovsky Competition; in 2021, he became the association’s president and musical director.
His repertoire is centered on nineteenth-century violin concertos by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruch, and Tchaikovsky. His interpretations of twentieth-century works, especially those by Shostakovich and Prokofiev, have been regarded as exemplary in Russian performance practice. He has received numerous distinctions, including first prize at the 1965 All-Union Competition of Performing Musicians, shared with Z. Vinnikov; the Lenin Komsomol Prize in 1967; the Glinka State Prize of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1981; and the Shostakovich Prize in 1997. He was named People’s Artist of the USSR in 1987.