Mischa Maisky — cellist with roots in the USSR
Mischa Maisky is a Latvian-Israeli cellist born in Riga (Latvian SSR) who studied with both Mstislav Rostropovich in Moscow and Gregor Piatigorsky in the United States, and has become one of the most internationally performed cellists of his generation. Known for his deeply personal interpretive style.
Tracing the roots — Riga (Latvia)
Born in Riga in 1948, Maisky was imprisoned by Soviet authorities on charges of currency speculation and spent 18 months in a labour camp before emigrating. He then studied with both of the 20th century's greatest cellists — Rostropovich (Soviet) and Piatigorsky (émigré Russian) — giving him a unique link to the entire arc of the Russian cello tradition.
Riga (Latvia). At the time, this region was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union.