23 Facts About Vladimir Ashkenazy

Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy is an internationally recognized solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor.

Vladimir Ashkenazy is originally from Russia and has held Icelandic citizenship since 1972.

Vladimir Ashkenazy's recordings have earned him five Grammy awards and Iceland's Order of the Falcon.

Vladimir Ashkenazy was born in Gorky, Soviet Union .

Vladimir Ashkenazy's father was Jewish and his mother came from a Russian Orthodox family.

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Vladimir Ashkenazy began playing piano at the age of six and was accepted to the Central Music School at age eight, studying with Anaida Sumbatyan.

Vladimir Ashkenazy attended the Moscow Conservatory where he studied with Lev Oborin and Boris Zemliansky.

Vladimir Ashkenazy won second prize in the V International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1955 and the first prize in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels in 1956.

Vladimir Ashkenazy shared the first prize in the 1962 International Tchaikovsky Competition with British pianist John Ogdon.

Vladimir Ashkenazy did not really cooperate, despite pressures from the authorities.

Khrushchev mentioned that Vladimir Ashkenazy then sought advice from the Soviet Embassy in London, who in turn referred the matter to Moscow.

Vladimir Ashkenazy further said that this was a good example of an artist being able to come and go in and out of the USSR freely, which Ashkenazy said was a gross "distortion of the truth".

In 1963, Vladimir Ashkenazy decided to leave the USSR permanently, establishing residence in London, where his wife's parents lived.

Vladimir Ashkenazy's eldest son Vladimir, who uses his nickname 'Vovka' as a stage name, is a pianist, as well as a teacher at the Imola International Piano Academy.

Guardian wrote that Vladimir Ashkenazy conducted pieces by Prokofiev and Gliere as if he was "born to do it" during a concert series that explored the musical response to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, including composer Alexander Mosolov's Iron Foundry and the suite from The Red Poppy, a ballet with music by Gliere.

Vladimir Ashkenazy has recorded a wide range of piano repertoire, both solo works and concerti.

In public piano performances, Vladimir Ashkenazy was known for rejecting a tie and button shirt in favor of a white turtleneck and for running onstage and offstage.

In Europe, Vladimir Ashkenazy was principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1987 to 1994, and of the Czech Philharmonic from 1998 to 2003.

Vladimir Ashkenazy is conductor laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor laureate of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and music director of the European Union Youth Orchestra.

Outside of Europe, Vladimir Ashkenazy served as music director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2007.

Vladimir Ashkenazy was chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 2009 to 2013.

In other media, Vladimir Ashkenazy has appeared in several films on music by Christopher Nupen.

Vladimir Ashkenazy has made his own orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky's piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition .