NIKITA POGREBNOY, violist, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia where he graduated from the world-famous St. Petersburg Conservatory with highest honors. He studied and attended masterclasses with world renowned musicians including Alexei Ludevic, Denes Zsigmondy, Atar Arad, Michael Zaretsky and Victor Rosenbaum, the Director of the Longy School of Music, who after hearing Nikita’s performance, invited him to the USA.

 

Internationally, Nikita is a winner of the Valentino Bucchi International Competition in Rome, Italy. Since then, he has appeared as both soloist and with various chamber ensembles across Russia, Central and North America, Mexico and Europe. He has also performed at numerous festivals and at major venues including the International Musical Arts Institute in Fryeburg, Maine, the Colorado Music Festival, Yellow Barn Music Festival and has been broadcast on both television and radio.

As a founding member of the famed Borealis String Quartet, Nikita has performed on concert tours in all the major cities in the the world and at some of the most internationally renowned concert halls. The Borealis has achieved an international reputation for fiery performances, passion, coupled with a refined musical interpretative style. The quartet has toured in the USA and Canada, at major venues, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Seattle, and also in Europe and Asia where they are sponsored by Chimei Culture Foundation in Taiwan. Their broad repertoire includes the traditional masterworks as well as new works written especially for the Borealis by contemporary composers such as Imant Raminsh, Bramwell Tovey and Murray Schafer.

Their performance for the Prime Minister of Canada was viewed by over 75,000 people while performing at Parliament Hill in Ottawa and consequently, performed special concerts for the Chief Justice of Canada, Beverly MacLachlin and for His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama.

As a philanthropist, Nikita and the Borealis devotes their time and art by playing hundreds of performances for audiences who are less fortunate and are no longer able to make it to concerts
as part of the Health Arts Society and Concerts in Care. The Borealis also raises the awareness of young composers in the annual Jean Coulthard Quartet Readings by promoting and performing works especially written for the event.

Nikita was recently honoured as a “Distinguished Fellow of BC” for the applauded presentations and lectures given as a Visiting Scholar at Green College@ UBC.

The Borealis is endorsed by Pirastro Strings and are ambassadors for the famed string company.

While he is not practicing the viola, Nikita can be found reading and exploring new nature trails.

Currently, Nikita teaches chamber music at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.