Nikolai Sachenko – 1st violin 

Graduated from the Moscow Central Music School and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Nicolai Sachenko studied with Zoya Makhtina, Sergei Kravchenko, Vladimir Ivanov and Alexander Bonduriansky. He has won prizes at several international competitions, including the International Leopold Mozart Competition in Augsburg in 1995 and the Golden Medal of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1998. Nikolai Sachenko is the concertmaster of the State Symphony Orchestra ’Novaya Rossiya’ under Yuri Bashmet. He has performed with many acclaimed conductors and orchestras in Russia, Japan, USA, China, Europe and Latin America, performing also in ensembles with Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Lynn Harrell among others, appearing at international festivals in Beijing, Kronberg, Prague, and at the Rostropovich Festival in Evian.

Sergei Lomovsky – 2^nd violin

Born in Moscow, Sergei Lomovsky graduated from Moscow Conservatory studying with Professor Beshkina and, in post-graduate studies, with Professor Kravchenko. As a string trio member, won Grand Prix in “Riviera del Conero” Competition in Ancona. He actively participated in chamber music festivals in Europe, CIS countries and Russia. He was a member of Moscow Soloists under Yuri Bashmet from 1992 up to the year he joined the Borodin Quartet in 2011.

Igor Naidin – viola

Born in Moscow in 1969 in a doctor’s family, Igor Naidin’s musical studies included violin and viola with Professor M. Glezarova and Yuri Bashmet at the Moscow Conservatory aged seven and continued under the tutelage of Yuri Bashmet until graduation in 1994 from Moscow Conservatory. A year later he won the Second International Viola Competition in Moscow and was awarded a special prize for his ensemble playing. Igor Naidin was a founder member of the Quartetto Russo (founded in 1985) which won prizes in a number of competitions including the London International String Quartet Competition and ‘Concertino Prague’ and the Bellini competition in Italy. As a member of the Quartetto Russo studying at the Conservatory, Igor Naidin received coaching from members of the Borodin String Quartet over a number of years and thus is very much a part of the Russian tradition embodied by them. He joined the Borodin Quartet in 1996.

Vladimir Balshin – Cello

Vladimir Balshin was born in 1973 in Moscow. After graduating from the Moscow Conservatory he continued his postgraduate studies there in the class of Prof. Natalia Shakhovskaya. As a member of the Russo Quartet he received tuition from Mikhail Kopelman and Valentin Berlinsky, both long-standing members of the Borodin Quartet. He became a laureate of international competitions in Italy (Caltanissetta, 1990, 1st Prize) and the UK (London String Quartet Competition, 1991, 3rd Prize). In 1994 was awarded a special prize by Mstislav Rostropovich at the International Cello Competition in Paris. He was a finalist of the XI Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow, 1998) and laureate of the Antonio Janigro International Cello Competition (Croatia, 2000). Between 1993 and 1998 he was a member of Moscow Soloists, the chamber orchestra led by Yuri Bashmet. Since 1998 he has been a member of the Brahms Trio and he teaches at the Moscow State Conservatory. He joined the Borodin Quartet in 2007.