Joachim Stutschewsky

Musician and composer

Joachim Yehoyachin Stutschewsky (, Иоахим Стучевский, 7 February 1891, Romny, Russian Empire – 14 November 1982, Tel Aviv, Israel) was a Ukraine born and Israeli cellist, composer, musicologist.

Joachim Yehoyachin Stutschewsky was born on 7 February 1891 in Romny (Ромни), guberniya of Poltava, Russian Empire, in a family of klezmer musicians. His father, Kalmen Leyb Stutschewsky was a clarinetist. Stutschewsky started playing the violin at the age of five but soon started playing the cello. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Leipzig from 1909 to 1912. He returned to Russian Empire, but after he was smuggled across the border to avoid forced conscription. He then tried to earn his livelihood for a short period of time as a cellist, in Paris and Jena. He moved to Vienna in 1924 where he joined the Kolisch Quartet. He was spending a lot of time studying Jewish folklore and wrote several musical pieces. He moved to Palestine in 1938. Throughout his life he was collecting examples of Jewish folklore, especially hasidic melodies. He has written multiple musical pieces for cello and piano. He has also adapted numerous piano pieces for the cello. Many of his compositions directly adapted, or were influenced by, his studies of Jewish music, in the spirit of the Russian Jewish school. Stutschewsky was married twice. His first wife was the Swiss cellist Rewekka (Regina) "Wecki" Schein] (1908 1999). Stutschewsky died in Tel Aviv, Israel. His archive can be found in the Felicja Blumental music library .