Vladimir Ashkenazy

(1937 - )

Vladimir Ashkenazy is a Jewish Russian pianist and conductor.

Ashkenazy (born July 6, 1037) was born in Gorky in the Soviet Union. He studied music at the Moscow Conservatory and, in 1962, won international fame as the recipient of the Tchaikovsky competition. Before that, he came in second place at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1955 and first place at the Queen Elizabeth competition in Brussels in 1956. As a pianist, he has appeared with performers such as Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zuckerman, Lynn Harrell, Elizabeth Soderstroem, Barbara Bonney and Matthias Goerne.

By the 1970s, Ashkenazy concentrated on conducting. He has been the guest conductor for the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Symphony, Cleveland Symphony, and Concertgebouw. He has also conducted concerts at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. His records include works by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Scriabin.

He resides in Meggen, Switzerland with his wife, who is also a pianist.

Sources: The Greater Princeton Steinway Society, Lucerne Worldclass, and Artsworld