About
Vovka Ashkenazy.
The musician in front of him.
For Vovka, teaching is a conversation about music: what a pianist hopes to express, and how to find a practical, natural way to express it.
His private teaching in Pura, Ticino, welcomes advanced pianists alongside young musicians and adults beginning or returning to the piano.
Concert life & musical roots
Vovka Ashkenazy began piano at six with Rögnvaldur Sigurjónsson in Reykjavík, and studied with Sulamita Aronovsky at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, with further sessions with Leon Fleisher and Peter Frankl.
His 1983 London debut at the Barbican — Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra under Richard Hickox — began an international concert career across Europe, the Americas, Australia, China, Japan and New Zealand.
He has performed and recorded with his father Vladimir Ashkenazy and his brother Dimitri Ashkenazy, and collaborated extensively with the Reykjavík Wind Quintet. His discography includes recordings for Decca, Chandos, Sony and Cryston.
Teaching has been central throughout: Piano Professor at the Conservatoire Gabriel Fauré in Angoulême (1998–2007), earlier posts at the University of Reading and the Colchester Institute, and masterclasses internationally. He was named Honorary Artistic Adviser in Guangzhou in 2010 and became Artistic Director of the Rina Sala Gallo International Piano Competition in Monza in 2014. He has also performed for charitable causes and appeared as a conductor.
Today his own teaching in Pura, Ticino, is at the centre of his work.
A life between stage and studio.
Alongside the concert stage, Vovka has always kept a teaching studio — the two sides of his musical life have grown together, each informing the other.
His 1983 London debut at the Barbican — Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra under Richard Hickox — opened an international career: orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker and NHK Philharmonic, and recitals across Europe, the Americas, Australia, China, Japan and New Zealand.
Chamber music has been a constant thread — duo concerts with his father Vladimir and his brother Dimitri, and a long collaboration with the Reykjavík Wind Quintet.
Teaching, juries and musical service.
Teaching has run alongside performing throughout Vovka’s life. He was Piano Professor at the Conservatoire Gabriel Fauré in Angoulême from 1998 to 2007, taught earlier at the University of Reading and the Colchester Institute in England, and has given masterclasses internationally — from the Royal Northern College of Music to China, South Korea, Italy and Iceland.
He has served on international competition juries, was named Honorary Artistic Adviser to the Guangzhou piano festival in 2010, and became Artistic Director of the Rina Sala Gallo International Piano Competition in Monza in 2014. He has also performed for charitable causes and appeared as a conductor.
The full historical record — orchestras, conductors, repertoire, juries and discography — is preserved in the archived CV.
Detailed CV — 2019 archive (PDF)
Family history
A musical family.
Vovka’s father, the pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, has been part of his musical life — in duo performances and recordings together. This portrait and quotation of Vladimir is preserved from the original website as family history.
A conversation starts here
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