|
Alexander Ardakov was born in Kuibyshev (now Samara), a Russian town in the Volga region. He began studying music at the town’s Special Music School with Lyia Klempert, and later at the Kuibyshev Musical College under Lydia Muraviova, the former pupil of two famous Moscow professors Vladimir Belov and Heinrich Neuhaus. While studying at the College he started to perform recitals and to play with the Kuibyshev Symphony Orchestra and won the First Prize at the National Kabalevsky Piano Competition in 1971. He continued his education at the Moscow Conservatoire with Vera Gornostaeva and he was a prizewinner at the Viotti International Competition in Vercelly, Italy in 1984.
Between 1981 and 1991, working as a soloist and a chamber musician at the Moscow State Philharmonia, he performed extensively throughout the U.S.S.R and abroad, producing numerous recordings with the U.S.S.R Radio Broadcasting Corporation and with the "Melodia" recording company. Since 1991, Alexander Ardakov has been living in England where in addition to appearing as a recitalist throughout the world he is Professor of Piano at Trinity College of Music in London. He has performed for BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM and has made several CD recordings, including Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Alexander Gibson.
Among his recent engagements are recitals at the Bosendorfer Hall in Vienna, five recitals at St. John’s Smith Square Hall in London, four recitals in the Carnegie Recital Hall in New York, three recitals at Gasteig Recital Hall in Munich, much acclaimed concert in the Wigmore Hall and most recently (May 2002) a highly commended by Züddeutsche Zeitung recital in the Munich’s Carl-Orff-Saal. He has also given recitals and Masterclasses at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Aarhus and at the California State University in Chico. His other performances include recitals at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco, at the Wooburn and Leighton Buzzard Festivals in Buckhingamshire, at the Colchester Institute, at Hatfield House with the kind invitation of the Marchioness of Salisbury, at the Polish Centre "Posk" in London. He also performed the Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto at the Festivals in Buckingham and Seattle.
His recent engagements include the performances of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto at the Aylesbury Festival in August 2002, the Schumann Piano Concerto at Amersham Festival in April 2003, a concert tour to Bermuda and the two performances (at the Coliseum and at the Salao Arabe Bolsa) with a master class in Oporto, Portugal in June 2003, a recital at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York in September 2003 and a recital at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford in May 2004. On the 9th of May 2004 he performed in the Coluseu Hall in Oporto, Portugal, to a standing ovations the three piano concertos (Schumann, Rachmaninov-2 & Tchaikovsky-1) with the "Orquestra do Norte" conducted by Maestro José Ferreira Lobo. On the 28th of May 2004 he played a recital of a virtuoso piano music at the Paganini International Festival in the city of Wroclaw, Poland. In October 2004 he performed Rachmaninov 2 in Seattle with the Everett Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Cobbs, receiving a standing ovation from the 1500 audience.
|
|
