Nikolai Gimaletdinov
Born into a family of musicians, Nikolai Gimaletdinov began playing the cello at the age of five under the tutelage of his father, Riza Gimaletdinov (cellist of the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, St. Petersburg). After earning his diploma from the music school of the St. Petersburg State Conservatory, he continued his studies at the Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst with Natalia Gutman. Since 2007, he has pursued further education in cello and baroque cello at the Vienna University of Music, with Herwig Tachezi, and chamber music with Valentin Erben (Alban Berg Quartet). He has attended masterclasses with renowned cellists such as Heinrich Schiff, Natalia Shakhovskaya, Jens Peter Maintz, Ivan Monighetti, Eleonore Schoenfeld, and Nathaniel Rosen.
Gimaletdinov has performed alongside chamber music partners such as Simon Trpčeski, Ivan Monighetti, António Victorino d’Almeida, Pavel Vernikov, Herwig Tachezi, Paul Gulda, and Thomas Leander.
As principal cellist, he has collaborated with distinguished conductors, including Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Charles Dutoit, Yuri Temirkanov, Valery Gergiev, Philippe Jordan, Fabio Luisi, Sylvain Cambreling, Stefan Blunier, Kent Nagano, Dmitri Kitayenko, Vladimir Fedoseev, and Michail Jurowski, among others. He has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including the Wiener Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Berliner Konzerthaus and Philharmonie, Koninklijk Concertgebouw, Gasteig and Herkulessaal in Munich, Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Hall, NHK Hall, Suntory Hall, Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Hall, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and the Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic.
As a soloist, Nikolai has appeared with renowned orchestras such as the Russian National Orchestra, the Moscow Virtuosi Orchestra, the Ekaterinburg Philharmonic, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine.
He has participated in international festivals, including the Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival (Netherlands), the BBC Proms (UK), the Salzburg Festival, Styriarte, Wiener Festwochen, Wien Modern (Austria), the Colmar Music Festival (France), the Oleg Kagan Musikfest (Germany), and the Gregor Piatigorsky Cello Festival (USA).
Between 2002 and 2009, he was both an artist and teacher at the Viana do Castelo International Music Festival (Portugal), and from 2005 to 2009, he served as the artistic director of the International Chamber Music Festival in Maputo (Mozambique).
He has been a cellist with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and a guest principal cellist with the Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre. Since 2007, he has actively collaborated with Concentus Musicus Wien and Klangforum Wien. Since 2021, Nikolai has been a guest cellist with Camerata Bern. From 2011 to 2016, he was the principal cellist of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, and since 2017, he has held the same position with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música.
Since 2017, Nikolai has been a professor of violoncello at the Espinho Professional Music School and, between 2019 and 2022, at the Viana do Castelo Professional Music School. In 2024, he was appointed professor of violoncello at the music department of Minho University.
Nikolai Gimaletdinov plays a cello by an unknown Italian luthier from the late 18th century.
2025
