Editing Mstislav Rostropovich (section)

==Early years==
[[File:Building on Rostropovichs Street 19 (2).jpg|thumbnail|left|House in Baku, where Rostropovich was born]]
Mstislav Rostropovich was born in [[Baku]], [[Azerbaijan SSR]], to parents who had moved from [[Orenburg]] in Russia: {{Interlanguage link|Leopold Vitoldovich Rostropovich|ru|3=Ростропович, Леопольд Витольдович}}, a renowned cellist and former student of [[Pablo Casals]],<ref name=Sony>{{cite web|url=http://www.sonyclassical.com/artists/rostropovich/bio.html |title=Mstislav Rostropovich biography |publisher=Sony Classical |access-date=30 April 2007|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070206193643/http://www.sonyclassical.com/artists/rostropovich/bio.html |archive-date=6 February 2007 }}</ref> and Sofiya Nikolaevna Fedotova-Rostropovich, a talented pianist. Leopold (1892–1942) was born in [[Voronezh]] to {{Interlanguage link|Witold Rostropowicz|ru|3=Ростропович, Витольд Ганнибалович}}, a composer of [[Polish nobility|Polish noble]] descent with distant [[Belarus]]ian roots, and Matilda Rostropovich (née Pule) of German and Huguenot descent. The Polish part of his family bore the [[Bogoria coat of arms]], which was located at the family palace in [[Skotniki, Masovian Voivodeship|Skotniki]].<ref name="ger">{{cite web|url=http://sovet.geraldika.ru/page/4311|title=РОСТРОПОВИЧИ (дополненная версия родового герба)|author= Дмитрий Иванов|authorlink=:ru:Иванов, Дмитрий Валерьевич |lang=ru|work=Геральдика.ру|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130906090250/http://sovet.geraldika.ru/page/4311 |archive-date=6 September 2013 }}</ref>
	
Mstislav's mother Sofiya Fedotova, of Russian descent,<ref name="or">{{cite web|url=https://www.vecherniyorenburg.ru/1710477/blagorodnyy-romantik/|title=Благородный романтик|date=2022-03-19|lang=ru|website=Vecherniyorenburg.ru}}</ref> was the daughter of musicians and herself a conservatory-trained pianist.<ref>{{cite web|title=Софья Николаевна Федотова-Ростропович|lang=ru|url=http://kultura.orb.ru/record/view?id=147}}</ref> Her elder sister, Nadezhda, married cellist Semyon Kozolupov, who was thus Rostropovich's uncle by marriage.<ref name=eliz>Elizabeth Wilson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=QhuIHg3mkGQC&q=kozolupov&pg=PT31 Mstislav Rostropovich: Cellist, Teacher, Legend]. Retrieved 2 June 2016.</ref>

Rostropovich grew up in Baku and spent his youth there. During [[World War II]] his family moved back to Orenburg and then in 1943 to Moscow.<ref>{{cite news | title=Mstislav Rostropovich: Obituary |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1717247.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013084244/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1717247.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=13 October 2008 | work=The Times | date=28 April 2007 | access-date=4 August 2007 | location=London}}</ref>

At age four, Rostropovich began studying piano with his mother. He began learning the cello at age eight from his father. In 1943, at age 16, he entered the [[Moscow Conservatory]], where he studied cello with his uncle Semyon Kozolupov, piano with Nikolai Kuvshinnikov, and composition with [[Vissarion Shebalin]]. His teachers also included [[Dmitri Shostakovich]]. In 1945, he came to prominence as a cellist when he won the gold medal in the Soviet Union's first ever competition for young musicians.<ref name=Sony/> He graduated from the Conservatory in 1948 and became professor of cello there in 1956.{{fact|date=January 2025}}