A pupil of Mstislav Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory, Ivan Monighetti won top prizes in many international competitions, including the 1974 Tchaikovsky competition, and since then has enjoyed a successful international career. He has participated in many important festivals and has performed with many of the world’s great orchestras and conductors. He has worked extensively with distinguished contemporary composers and many works written especially for him are now part of the established cello repertoire. He is also highly respected for his expertise in the performance practice of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and is the founding director of the Moscow Early Music Festival. He now has a varied career as a cello soloist and a conductor of international repute and with his own orchestra Camerata Boccherini he has toured Poland, Holland, France, Estonia and Russia.

With prize-winning recordings to his credit, Ivan Monighetti is professor of cello at the Basle Academy of Music in Switzerland, and a guest professor at the Reina Sofia High School of Music in Madrid. He has been a jury member of prestigious competitions such as the J.S. Bach competition in Leipzig and the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow and has given masterclasses in many countries.