Embassy of Azerbaijan joins the American Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation and distinguished guests in celebrating the 90th anniversary of Maestro Mstislav Rostropovich, a native of Azerbaijan, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC

Event was organized by the American-Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation. Among the guests were Russian and Azerbaijani Ambassadors to the United States Sergei Kislyak and Elin Suleymanov, former US Senator Richard Lugar, as well as former World Bank President and President Emeritus of the Kennedy Center James Wolfenson and others.

Speaking of legendary cellist and conductor Ambassador Suleymanov said: “Maestro Rostropovich is a person who has united so many cultures, so many people, so many countries together by being himself”

Rostropovich was born in Baku, Azerbaijan during the Soviet Union era in 1927. He was of mostly ethnic Russian ancestry, and his father was partly Polish.

Rostropovich was internationally recognized as a staunch advocate of human rights, and he was awarded the 1974 Award of the International League of Human Rights.

A five-time Grammy Award winner, he has become one of the West leading conductors. For 17 seasons, he was the permanent conductor and artistic director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, which was included in the list of one of the best American orchestras. Rostropovich appeared regularly in the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, as well as London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic.

Azeri America News