Alexander Ivashkin (Russian: Александр Васильевич Ивашкин), (17 August 1948 – 31 January 2014) was a Russian cellist, writer, academic and conductor. Ivashkin studied at the Gnessin Institute, where his teachers included Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Valery Polyansky. He also played electric cello, viola da gamba, sitar and piano. Ivashkin became co-principal cellist of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. In 1978, he founded the Bolshoi Soloists, a new chamber orchestra. In 1969, Ivashkin married fellow musician Natalia Pavlutskaya, who survives her husband.