The Russian violinist, who won the 1963 edition of the Queen Elisabeth Competition and lived in Spain for many years, was 87
The death of Russian violinist Alexei Michlin has been reported on 30 November 2025. He was 87.
He was born on 15 August 1938 in Minsk, into a family of musicians. He began his violin studies in Lviv and later entered the Central Children’s School of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he studied with Boris Belenki and David Oistrakh.
He won the Grand Prize and Gold Medal at the 1963 edition of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels and was awarded the Eugene Ysaÿe Foundation Medal of Belgium.
A review of his performance at the Queen Elisabeth Competition finals in Time magazine reported that Michlin ’quickly snatch[ed] up the concertmaster’s violin and [went] on playing when a string in his own instrument broke during his performance of a concerto written especially for the occasion.’
Michlin went on to perform as a soloist in numerous countries, including the former USSR, Poland, Iran, Bulgaria, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Spain, Cuba, Portugal, Yugoslavia, among others, under the baton of such conductors as Seiji Ozawa and Gennady Rozhdestvensky.
He recorded for Moscow Radio as well as several albums for the Melodia record label.
As an educator, he gave masterclasses and taught at advanced courses in Russia, France, Spain and Portugal. He served as a professor at the Gnessin Higher Academy of Music in Moscow, before taking up a position at the Higher Conservatory of Music of Asturias, in Oviedo, Spain.
Michlin spent many years living and teaching in Oviedo, influencing several generations of Spanish and international violinists. His son, Andrei Mijlin, has been concertmaster of the Oviedo Philharmonic for several years.
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