Valentin Berlinsky

Valentin Aleksandrovich Berlinsky (; January 19, 1925 – December 15, 2008) was a Russian cellist. He was a member of the Borodin Quartet in 1945 and was a member until 2007. By that time, he was the only member to have played in the Borodin Quartet from the beginning. Berlinsky played for the group for 60 years, making him the longest-serving member of what The New York Times described as being "by all accounts the longest continuously playing" string quartet in the world.

After 20 years with the same line-up difficult times followed in the 1970s: Dubinsky emigrated to the West in 1976 and the second violinist, Jaroslav Alexandrov, retired through ill-health. Having recruited replacements, Berlinsky insisted that the ensemble spend two years out of sight until the Borodin sound had been fully recreated.

Berlinsky died at age 83 on the night of December 15, 2008, in Moscow, after a long illness.

The quartet's oath and the complete list of their performances together with chronological events taken from his own diaries were compiled and edited by his granddaughter, Maria Matalaev, and his biography published in Valentin Berlinsky: A Quartet for Life (2018).

Discography Berlinsky, V.A. Concert Master-Class: Beethoven/Shostakovich String Quartets performed by the Dominant Quartet. Rusico DVD (NTSC) 2002