Vladimir Ashkenazy facts for kids
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (born 6 July 1937) is a famous pianist and conductor. He was born in the Soviet Union but later became an Icelandic citizen. Ashkenazy has worked with many well-known orchestras and solo musicians. He has also recorded a huge number of classical and romantic music pieces. His recordings have won him seven Grammy Awards and Iceland's Order of the Falcon.
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Becoming a Musician
Vladimir Ashkenazy was born in Gorky, Soviet Union (now Nizhny Novgorod, Russia). His father, David Ashkenazi, was a pianist and composer. His mother, Yevstolia Grigorievna, was an actress. Vladimir started playing the piano when he was six years old. At age eight, he was accepted into the Central Music School, where he studied with Anaida Sumbatyan.
Ashkenazy later attended the Moscow Conservatory. He won second prize in the V International Chopin Piano Competition in 1955. The next year, he won first prize in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition. In 1962, he shared first prize in the International Tchaikovsky Competition.
A Career in Music
Ashkenazy has recorded many different types of piano music. These include solo pieces and concertos (pieces for piano and orchestra).
Famous Piano Recordings
His solo piano recordings include:
- Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier and French Suites
- Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues
- All the sonatas by Beethoven and Scriabin
- All the piano works by Rachmaninoff and Chopin
- Almost all the piano works by Schumann
Piano Concertos
He has also recorded many piano concertos, such as:
- All of Mozart's piano concertos, which he conducted himself from the piano.
- Three sets of Beethoven's five piano concertos. He recorded these with different orchestras and conductors.
- Concertos by Brahms, Bartók, and Prokofiev.
- Two sets of Rachmaninoff's concertos.
When performing, Ashkenazy was known for wearing a white turtleneck instead of a shirt and tie. He would also run onto and off the stage. He has also played and recorded chamber music, which is music for a small group of instruments. He made famous recordings of Beethoven's complete violin sonatas with Itzhak Perlman. He also recorded cello sonatas with Lynn Harrell and piano trios with Harrell and Perlman.
Becoming a Conductor
In the middle of his piano career, Ashkenazy started conducting. In Europe, he was the main conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1987 to 1994. He also led the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Czech Philharmonic. Ashkenazy is now an honorary conductor for several orchestras, including the Philharmonia Orchestra. He is also the music director of the European Union Youth Orchestra.
As a conductor, he has recorded all the symphonies by Sibelius and Rachmaninoff. He has also recorded orchestral works by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Scriabin, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky.
Outside of Europe, Ashkenazy was the music director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Japan from 2004 to 2007. He was also the chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Australia from 2009 to 2013.
Ashkenazy has recorded for Decca since 1963. In 2013, Decca celebrated his 50th anniversary with a special box set of his recordings. In 2017, for his 80th birthday, more collections of his works were released. He has also appeared in films about music and even created his own orchestral version of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.
On January 17, 2020, Ashkenazy announced that he was retiring from public performances.
Family Life
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In 1961, Vladimir Ashkenazy married Þórunn Jóhannsdóttir, who was from Iceland. She also studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory. To marry him, Þórunn had to give up her Icelandic citizenship.
In 1963, Ashkenazy decided to leave the Soviet Union for good. He moved to London, where his wife's parents lived. In 1968, the couple moved to Iceland. In 1972, Ashkenazy became an Icelandic citizen. He helped start the Reykjavík Arts Festival in 1970 and is still its Honorary President.
In 1978, the family moved to Lucerne, Switzerland. They had five children: Vladimir Stefan, Nadia Liza, Dimitri Thor, Sonia Edda, and Alexandra Inga. His oldest son, Vladimir (who goes by 'Vovka'), is also a pianist and a teacher. His second son, Dimitri, is a clarinet player.
Awards and Achievements
Ashkenazy has received many awards for his musical work. He won seven Grammy Awards from 21 nominations.
Music Competition Prizes
- 1955: Second prize at the V International Chopin Piano Competition
- 1956: First prize at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition
- 1962: Shared first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition
Grammy Awards
- 1974: Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with orchestra) for Beethoven's Piano Concertos.
- 1979: Best Chamber Music Performance for Beethoven's Sonatas for Violin and Piano (with Itzhak Perlman).
- 1982: Best Chamber Music Performance for Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in A minor (with Itzhak Perlman and Lynn Harrell).
- 1986: Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra) for Ravel's piano works.
- 1988: Best Chamber Music Performance for Beethoven's Complete Piano Trios (with Itzhak Perlman and Lynn Harrell).
- 2000: Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra) for Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues.
Other Honors
- 2000: Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award
- Current president of the Rachmaninoff Society
- 2014: Sergei Rachmaninov International Award
- 2019: Elgar Medal
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards are Australian awards for music.
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius (with Sydney Symphony Orchestra) | Best Classical Album | Nominated |
Images for kids
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Ashkenazy (1984)
See also
In Spanish: Vladímir Ashkenazi para niños
