Vasili Shirinsky

Vasili Shirinsky (1901–1965) was a Russian composer, violinist and conductor, brother of Sergei Shirinsky, one of the founding members and 2nd violin of the Beethoven Quartet (1923–65), professor and head of the Chamber Ensemble & Quartet department at the Moscow Conservatory (since 1957), People's Artist of the RSFSR (1965), and laureate of the first degree Stalin Prize (1946). He studied composition with Nikolai Myaskovsky at the Moscow Conservatory. In the 1920, Vasily Shirinsky had been playing in Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Persimfans. Dmitri Shostakovich dedicated his Eleventh Quartet to Vasili Shirinsky.