A birthday party was held for the long-time violin professor at London’s Royal College of Music on 1 May
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On Friday 1 May 2026, a birthday celebration was held in honour of violinist and long-time Royal College of Music professor Felix Andrievsky. He has taught at RCM for more than 40 years, considered a ‘living legend of the violin world’ by his former students, many of whom were in attendance.
Andrievsky was born in 1936 in Ukraine. He began playing the violin at an early age, and after winning the first prize in the national music competition he moved to Moscow, where he studied at the Central Music School and later at the Gnessin State Musical Institute, where he completed his undergraduate studies and earned his doctorate. During his training in Moscow, he was guided by the legendary Soviet pedagogues Abram Yampolsky and Yuri Yankelevich. He studied chamber music with Maria Yudina.
Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, he maintained an active professional career within the USSR, giving numerous concerts and recitals, frequently performing alongside his wife, the award-winning pianist Irina Zaritskaya. He started to teach early both as an assistant to Yuri Yankelevich and in his own right.
In 1972, Andrievsky and his family emigrated from the Soviet Union to Israel. He taught as a professor at the Jerusalem Music Academy and the Tel Aviv University Music Academy. Lord Yehudi Menuhin, who had heard Andrievsky’s students in Moscow years earlier, invited him to become professor and director of studies at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Gstaad, Switzerland. Menuhin famously said:
’He has brought us invaluable method, what one might call “know-how”. It is as if one of the Russian nuclear physicists suddenly defected and brought us a whole load of valuable information.’
Andrievsky eventually moved to the United Kingdom, where he became professor and principal lecturer in violin at the RCM in London, and a visiting professor at the Yehudi Menuhin School.
Throughout his decades-long career, Andrievsky has trained some of the world’s most accomplished soloists, ensemble leaders and teachers, including: Boris Belkin, Daniel Hope, Alexander Markov, Natalia Boyarsky, Corina Belcea, Laurent Korcia, Vasko Vassilev, Alexandre Brussilovsky, Levon Ambartsumian, Yuri Zhislin, Ani Schnarch, Krzysztof Chorzelski, Valeriy Sokolov, Yuri Zhislin, Ruth Palmer and Roman Mints.
Many of today’s leading musicians are Andrievsky’s musical grandchildren, such as Janine Jensen through Boris Belkin, plus Alina Ibragimova and Nicola Benedetti through Natalia Boyarsky.
He remains active and still teaches at the RCM. In honour of the occasion, former student Roman Mints gave the following speech:
Dear Professor,
I have good news and bad news.
I’m not going to ask which one I should start with – I’ll just begin with the bad news:
A lot of your former students who really wanted to be here today couldn’t make it… because they have concerts!
And that is actually the good part—although there is nothing new about it. You are such a great teacher that you gave us a profession that keeps us incredibly busy. Reflecting on your teaching career, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the violin landscape of this country – and indeed the world – would not be the same without you.
It is hard to name a conservatoire in the UK that does not have at least one of your former students on the faculty. Even here in this room, we have several professors who studied with you.
Your influence goes far beyond this: a great number of leading violinists today are either your students or your musical grandchildren.
Now, some more bad news: it is common knowledge that every teacher’s goal is to help students become mature and independent, so that one day they no longer need their teacher. And in that, you have partly failed – because we still need you.
Every day, when I teach or approach a new piece, I think of you – of what you would say, what fingering you would suggest, or what musical image you would use to help a student achieve their best. We need you, and we always will. I feel privileged to have you not only as a teacher, but also as a friend – someone I can turn to for advice, both violinistic and beyond.
Ten years ago, we celebrated your 80th birthday. The next day, you called me and told me that from that moment on, all of us were allowed to play out of tune.
Today, with your permission and under your leadership, we are performing your favourite tune (out of tune), ’The Firefighters’ March’
Photos courtesy Roman Mints.
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