What is Vladimir Ashkenazy?
{{BLP unsourced|date=September 2012}} [[File:Vladimir Ashkenazy.jpg|thumb]] '''Vladimir Ashkenazy''' (born 6 July 1937) is a [[Russia]]n [[pianist]] and [[Conducting|conductor]]. He became world famous as a pianist. During the last two decades he has become equally famous as a conductor, as well as performing and recording as a pianist. == Early life == Ashkenazy was born in [[Nizhny Novgorod|Gorky]], [[Russia]]. His father was an [[Ashkenazi]] [[Jew]], his mother was Russian. Although his father was a pianist he never had lessons from him. He began playing the piano when he was six. He soon showed enormous talent and two years later went to the Central Music School in Gorki. He graduated from the [[Moscow Conservatory]]. He won second prize in the [[International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition]] in Warsaw in 1955 and the first prize in the [[Queen Elisabeth Music Competition]] in Brussels in 1956. He shared the first prize in the 1962 [[International Tchaikovsky Competition]] with [[United Kingdom|British]] pianist [[John Ogdon]]. ==Pianistic career== Vladimir Ashkenazy has had an extremely successful career as a pianist. He became famous for his playing of [[Romantic music]] and music by [[Russia]]n composers. He recorded a very large amount of music including the 24 Preludes and Fugues of [[Dmitri Shostakovich]], [[Alexander Scriabin]]'s piano sonatas, [[Sergei Rachmaninoff|Rachmaninoff]]'s, [[Frédéric Chopin]]'s and [[Robert Schumann]]'s complete piano works, [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]'s piano sonatas, and the piano concertos of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] (conducting from the keyboard with the [[Philharmonia Orchestra]]). He recorded [[concerto]]s with many of the world's most famous orchestras. He still records and performs all over the world, often playing piano concertos and conducting from the piano keyboard. On 17 January 2020, Ashkenazy's management agency said that he was retiring.<ref>{{cite web|title=VLADIMIR ASHKENAZY RETIRES|url= https://www.harrisonparrott.com/ne