Around the Music Festival

Violinist Anastasia Chebotareva was arrested in mid-January on charges of embezzlement. Russian media reports. Chebotareva was born in 1972 in Odessa, the capital of Ukraine.

Her musical talent was discovered by the renowned teacher Irina Bochikova, and she went to the Moscow Central Music School and Moscow Conservatory, where she won the Paganini International Violin Competition in 1989 and won the Rodolfo Lipitzer International Competition in 1992.

In 1994, in the violin section of the 10th Tchaikovsky International Competition, she shared the highest rank with Jennifer Koe of the United States.

According to reports in Russia, the arrest was based on the arrest of her husband Andrei Popov, who is cult religion “God Kuzya”. Popov and his sect were arrested in September 2015 on charges of fraud against believers and sentenced to five years in prison.

At the time of the arrest, Chebotareva also had been wanted by police authorities as a related person. Chebotareva is to be detained until March for further investigation.

Chebotareva is one of the violinists of the lineage of Leonid Kogan, Viktor Tretyakov and Viktoria Mullova. She has been an associate professor at her alma mater Moscow Conservatory since 1999, and in 2004 was awarded the Russian Federation Meritorious Artist.

Photo：www.anastasia-chebotareva.com