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The renowned Russian cellist who makes his Israeli debut at the Sixth Eilat Chamber Music Festival this weekend says he has no real answer to the question "How do you manage to live several lives simultaneously, being an active performer, conductor, writer, teacher, jury member in cello competitions and festival organizer?"
"I think that for me, this switching of activities serves as a substitute for rest," he says in a phone interview from his London home.
Alexander Ivashkin, who was described as an outstanding cellist by Mstislav Rostropovich, an excellent musician by John Cage, and an outstanding person in present-day music activities by Krzysztof Penderecki, performs throughout the world as a soloists with the best orchestras and also plays chamber music. But starting his music studies at the Gnessin Special School of Music for gifted students at the age of five, he still remembers how he cried when he realized he was going to play the cello. "It was an...