Yuri Bondarev, born in St. Petersburg, switched to the viola after studying violin at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin and was accepted into the class of Prof. Tatjana Masurenko at the Leipzig Musikhochschule, where he also took his concert exam. Regular solo and chamber music performances have taken him to Austria, Italy, France, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Holland and Japan. He has played in various ensembles including the Vienna Musikverein, the Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Milan Conservatory, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Tonhalle Düsseldorf.
He gained his first important orchestral experience with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic with conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Kurt Masur, Daniel Harding, Dmitrij Kitajenko, Christopher Hogwood, Herbert Blomstedt and others. Since 2009 he has played as assistant principal violist with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra.
Since 2012 he teaches as a lecturer for violin, viola and chamber music at the International Music Academy Anton Rubinstein in Düsseldorf and since 2021 he has been a lecturer at the Beethoven Conservatorium in Tegelen.
