Celebrate the spectacular season opening concert with the artistry of Van Cliburn International piano competition gold medal winner, Vladimir Viardo, performing Rachaminoff’s brilliant Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini. The orchestra will perform the thrilling Symphony No. 4 by Tchaikovsky.
Rossini: Overture to Barber of Seville
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.4
The Russian pianist, Vladimir Viardo, traveled to Moscow at the age ot 14 to further his musical formation. Once in the capital, he was taken to the family of Lev Naumov (Custodian of the Heinrich Neuhaus methods that are credited with producing the extraordinary 20th-century Russian keyboard masters, Emil Gilels and Sviatoslav Richter), with whom he later studied at the Moscow Conservatory. During his 6 years of study he was tenured as a soloist by The Moscow Philharmonia, and after receiving his doctorate, went on to the position of assistant professor with Naumov at the Conservatory where he is associated to this day. In 1971 he was awarded the Grand Prix and the Prix du Prince Rainier in the Marguérite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition of Paris, and two years later (1973) was the top prize winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
Subsequently Vladimir Viardo received contracts for some seventy recital and symphony orchestra appearances in major USA cities. Then, despite having already launched an impressive global career, his travel visa was mysteriously revoked, resulting in his virtual imprisonment behind the iron curtain for 14 years. During his confinement he developed new horizons in artistic achievement, and enlarged his repertoire, which eventually included thirty-seven concertos.
With the era of “Glasnost” and “Perestroika,” Vladimir Viardo returned to public engagements in Germany and in the USA. He has performed at the Lincoln centre, the Kennedy Centre, Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw, and the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. He was quickly offered a tour and recording contract with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. As Artist-In-Residence at the University of North Texas, he established the Viardo Fellows Foundation, which is committed to providing musical training of the highest artistic quality. His tours have taken him to leading North American and European cities, as Well as to Asia, South Africa, Israel, and to Central and South America, where he has appeared as soloist with such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Penderecki, and Eduardo Mata.
Vladimir Viardo has made many recordings including J.S. Bach, Claude Debussy, César Franck, Alemdar Karamanov, Nikolai Medtner, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sergei Rachmaninov. His recordings have included the works of Nicolai Medtner, Lutoslawski with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and a Sony release honoring Penderecki’s 60th birthday. His first Pro Piano Records release of Bach-Liszt and Franck-Viardo Organ Piano Transcriptions received critical acclaim internationally and continues its worldwide popularity.
Vladimir Viardo, born in 1949 at Krasnia Polana in the Caucasus, USSR, is a Russian pianist.
Viardo studied with Irina Naumova at the Gnessin State Musical College and later studied with Lev Naumov at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory where he remained as a student for six years. Naumov would describe him as “my number one pupil”. During this time, he was tenured as a soloist by Moscow Philharmonia (the primary music organization of the USSR). After obtaining a doctorate, he was immediately engaged as assistant professor with Naumov at the Conservatory. At 21 Viardo took the third prize and the Prix du Prince Rainier at the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition, and in 1973 first prize at the Van Cliburn International Competition. He had already launched an impressive global career when his travel visa was mysteriously revoked. For nearly thirteen years, Viardo was a virtual prisoner of the Iron Curtain. During this closed period, he developed new horizons in his artistic achievements, vastly enlarging his repertoire, eventually including 37 concertos. Only when Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in the Soviet Union was freedom to travel restored, and in 1987 Viardo was permitted to accept engagements in Germany and in the United States.
He joined the University of North Texas College of Music faculty as artist-in residence in 1989. An extraordinary and celebrated teacher, his international roster of students includes young artists from Eastern Europe, as well as Spain, Mexico, South Africa and the United States. Viardo’s master classes are much in demand throughout the world and his name appears in the book The Most Wanted Piano Teachers in the USA.
Since returning to the West where his international career resumed with several concerts at Carnegie Hall, theLincoln and Kennedy Centers, Salle Pleyel and the Concertgebouw, Viardo’s tours have taken him to leading American, Canadian and European cities, Asia and South Africa as well as to Israel, Central and South America, appearing as soloist with most of the important conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta,Vladimir Spivakov, Dmitri Kitayenko, Eduardo Mata, Kirill Kondrashin, and Krzysztof Penderecki. He has made numerous recordings for Melodiya, Pro Arte, Nonesuch, and Sony.
