Misha Rachlevsky

Misha Rachlevsky’s lifetime affinity for chamber music and chamber orchestra repertoire began at the College of the Moscow Conservatory and the Gnessin Academy of Music. Born in Moscow, his violin studies began at the age of five and continued through the well-travelled path of the Russian school of string playing. After leaving the Soviet Union in 1973, he lived and worked in different countries on three continents, and in 1976 settled in the United States, becoming active in the field of chamber music. Mr. Rachlevsky founded the New American Chamber Orchestra (NACO) in 1984, and led it to international prominence, completing nine European tours in four years. In 1989, Rachlevsky accepted an offer from the city of Granada, Spain for a two-year project under which NACO became the resident orchestra of Granada while, concurrently, Rachlevsky founded and led Granada’s own chamber orchestra. In 1991, in the heady aftermath of Moscow’s momentous events of August 1991, Misha Rachlevsky found it impossible to resist an opportunity presented by Claves to record Russian works for this label. When Claves concurred with his suggestion to realise the project with Russian musicians, Rachlevsky called auditions, and Chamber Orchestra Kremlin was created.