Alina Ibragimova - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Ibragimova was born in Polevskoy, Russia, to a Tatar family. Her family was musical, and she began playing the violin at the age of four. At five she started at the Gnessin State Musical College in Moscow, studying under Valentina Korolkova, and by the age of six had started her career by playing with various orchestras, including the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. She was aged ten in 1996 when her father, Rinat Ibragimov, took up the post of principal double bass with the London Symphony Orchestra, and the family moved to live in England. In the following year Ibragimova began her studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School (where her mother is professor of violin) under Natasha Boyarskaya.

In December 1998 Ibragimova performed with Nicola Benedetti at the opening ceremony of the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at UNESCO in Paris; they played Bach's double violin concerto under the baton of Yehudi Menuhin. Menuhin died three months later, and Ibragimova performed the slow movement of the same concerto at his funeral in Westminster Abbey.

After finishing her studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Ibragimova went on to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for a year, and then to the Royal College of Music, studying under Gordan Nikolitch. Ibragimova has also studied with Christian Tetzlaff since 2000, most recently under the auspices of the Kronberg Academy Masters programme.

Together with other students from the Royal College, she formed the period-instrument string quartet Chiaroscuro, specialising in music from the classical period.