Biography

One of the few really prominent pianists of our time, Vladimir Sverdlov, has devoted himself to composing his own music and has been exclusively an author-performer for several years past, and with great success. The main difference between him and those composers who simply perform their compositions on the piano is, first of all, his outstanding mastery of the instrument. Sverdlov possesses an incredible sound palette and transcendent virtuosity. Heart-capturing melodies, romantic atmosphere, brilliant work with forms, vivid polyphonic sound, and of course, the variety of styles where the composer employs his unique musical language, define all of his works. Vladimir Sverdlov-Ashkenazy also composes piano, violin and clarinet concertos, chamber music, songs, music for films and animated movies.

The musician’s output can be divided into two parts. The first is his activity as Vladimir Sverdlov: his “making” as a pianist; his triumph at the Queen Elizabeth competition in 1999, his winning the Prince Albert Masters Competition in Monte Carlo in 2006. After all of this, there were performances with the most renowned orchestras and conductors, such as the Israel Philharmonic (Zubin Metha), the National Orchestra of Belgium (Marc Soustrot), the Concertgebouw Orchestra (Martin Siegart), Zvizzera italiana (Michail Pletnev) and many others. Sverdlov took part in festivals such as La rock d’anteron, Projetto Argerich, Palais princiers de Monaco, and in other significant events of the music world. His discography includes works by Chopin, Schubert, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, and Brahms.

The second chapter of his artistic journey is concentrated on writing and performing his own music. The turning point was the year 2009, when the musician first included several of his own compositions in the program of his concert in Paris (Salle Gaveau), and they were met with such overwhelming success that all managers had to ask Sverdlov to play his own compositions. As early as in 2011, British music label “Piano classics” releases his album “Pictures”, which included several of his new compositions. And it’s this album that for the first time features the double name “Sverdlov-Ashkenazi”. The surname Ashkenazi is the surname of Vladimir on the maternal side, and the double surname symbolizes the shift and the progress made on his creative path, while representing the pianist and the composer as the same person.

The ensuing years saw the musician’s formation as a composer. As of today, Vladimir Sverdlov-Ashkenazi has written numerous pieces for piano, as well as chamber and instrumental music. Musicians of different generations around the world interpret his compositions, such as: Alexander Gindin, Peter Ovtcharov, Dmitry Kogan, Alexey Lundin, Ilya Rashkovsky, Gauthier Capucon, Igor Fedorov, Moscow Virtuoso Chamber Orchestra, and many others. Vladimir Sverdlov-Ashkenazi also writes music for feature films and documentaries.

Vladimir Sverdlov-Ashkenazi is touring quite actively, travelling around the world mainly as the composer and performer of his own music for piano and for piano and orchestra. In 2019, he released his solo album, containing his 15 compositions for piano. In the same year, “Vision fugitive” is released, being one of the first video clips shot for a piano piece, where Vladimir is represented as an author, actor and pianist. This piano thriller marks a new milestone in the musician’s work, as well as sets a new trend in the art of piano music of the 21st century.