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I read a book by the ballerina Gelsey Kirkland recently. There's a story in it about her attending a party in New York in the 70's thrown by Rostropovich for a bunch of the ex-pat Russians (soviet ballet defectors like her partner Mikhail Baryshnikov, etc).
She says she felt left out and embarassed because they had a vodka-round-table drinking game going on and she couldn't take the drink.. apparently Rostropovich noticed her distress and quietly took her under his wing. He spent the entire night secretly drinking her vodka shots as well as his own to save her face with her ballet contemporaries.
Seemed like a nice fella.
Oh and a good cellist too.
RIP.
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