Kirill Timofeev is a cellist and composer whose artistic world bridges centuries, traditions, and cultures. For more than twenty-five years, he has lived between Germany - where he studied and built much of his career - and Saint Petersburg, the city of his roots, known for its rich tradition of artistic and intellectual life. This dual perspective shapes his musical voice: historically informed, stylistically open, and grounded in deep artistic curiosity.

 

Timofeev’s connection to the German-speaking world began early. At the age of thirteen, he travelled to Vienna for his first international concert appearance, an experience that sparked a lifelong fascination with the German language and culture. Years later, in 2000, he moved to Stuttgart to pursue advanced studies, continuing the path he had begun as a teenager.

 

Raised in a family of technical intelligentsia - engineers and mathematicians - Timofeev grew up surrounded not by professional musicians, but by parents and grandparents who cherished culture in its fullest sense: music and regular concerts at the Philharmonic, poetry and literature both Russian and world, and the visual arts. They encouraged his musical talent early, and he began cello lessons at the age of five. After completing the ten-year Special Music School in Saint Petersburg, Timofeev entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory, studying with Anatoly Nikitin. He later spent a formative year performing in Yuri Temirkanov’s orchestra, encountering legendary conductors including Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Mariss Jansons.

 

From 2000 onward, Timofeev studied in the soloist class of Peter Buck (Melos Quartet) in Stuttgart. His development was further shaped by mentorship from Natalia Gutman, David Geringas, renowned baroque specialists Margaret Faultless, Eckart Sellheim, and Jaap ter Linden, as well as artistic collaborations with distinctive musicians across varied styles such as Daniel Schnyder, Gilles Apap, Giora Feidman, and The King’s Singers. His partnership with pianist Evgeny Sinaisky has produced the album Lost in Style (Solo Musica), while his work with the Rastrelli Cello Quartet has resulted in a dozen recordings.

 

In 2002, he co-founded the Rastrelli Cello Quartet, an ensemble of unique repertoire and exceptional sound quality, launching a performing career that has taken him to major international stages including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Suntory Hall Tokyo, the Berliner Philharmonie, and festivals such as the Rheingau Musik Festival and the Rio International Cello Encounter.

 

Today, alongside his work with the quartet, Timofeev is expanding his personal artistic profile as a soloist and composer. He is the Artistic Director of the Klangsinn Festival in Marktoberdorf (Bavaria, Germany), founded in 2025, which explores musical connections between Germany and the cultural heritage of Saint Petersburg, its composers, interpreters, and musical traditions.

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His upcoming solo cello album, Dialogue Across Time, sets the eleven Capricci of Giuseppe Dall’Abaco in conversation with Timofeev’s own works, music that is lyrical, virtuosic, and at moments touched by contemporary and rock idioms. The project reflects his belief in music as a living, evolving dialogue between past and present.

 

Timofeev lives between Germany and Saint Petersburg. He is a father of two and carries forward the broad cultural curiosity instilled in him by a family that valued not only music, but poetry, literature, and the arts as pathways to understanding the world.