Oxana Yablonskaya
Biography
Oxana Yablonskaya's charismatic piano playing and profound interpretations have brought her acclaim for over thirty years. Known for her powerhouse virtuosity, exquisite sensitivity, and deep emotional drive, Ms. Yablonskaya has enchanted audiences world-wide.
Oxana Yablonskaya was born in Moscow. As an adolescent she attended The Moscow Central School for the Gifted under the tutelage of Anaida Sumbatyan (who also taught Vladimir Ashkenazy) with whom she worked with until the age of 16. She later studied at the Conservatory of Moscow with the legendary Aleksandre Goldenweiser. At 22, she began a professional relationship with Tatiana Nikolayeva in the Doctorate Program, later acting as her assistant at the Moscow Conservatory. Following graduation with high honors, she was introduced to the Western World in Paris at the Jacques Long-Thibaud Competition in 1963, the Rio de Janeiro Competition in 1965, and the Vienna Beethoven Competition in 1969. She won top prizes in all three competitions, and received numerous invitations for return engagements, but because of the Cold War, was not allowed to do so.
While still in the USSR, Ms. Yablonskaya performed Shostakovich's Piano Concerto #1 with the Moscow Philharmonic under conductor Yury Simonov at the Composers Jubilee Concert in the Kremlin. She was the first performer to play Rodion Shchedrin's "Basso Ostinato," which became her signature piece. Her status as a consummate professional was heightened by many prominent Soviet and foreign composers dedicating their music to her.
Despite the reputation she had earned within the Soviet Union and being a prize winner of three international competitions, she was never permitted to play outside the Eastern Bloc. Yet, she recorded for the Melodya label and had earned the prestigious title of Soloist of the Moscow Philharmonic. The title put her in the company of elite artists such as Gilels, Richter, Rostropovich, Oistrakh and Kogan. Outstanding solo performances with the Bolshoi Orchestra, the Moscow Stars series, and the Shostokovich 65th Birthday Celebration Concert were confirmations of her remarkable talent.
In 1975, distressed over constant restraints on her personal and artistic freedom, she applied for a U.S. visa. Her actions resulted in a loss of her position as a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. She inherently was deprived of all concert engagements. She waited more than two years for a visa and finally, she was allowed to leave the country with her father and young son due to the diligence and petitioning by Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Richard Rodgers, Katherine Hepburn, Bar Ilan, and over 45 famous writers, musicians, senators, and actors.
Ms. Yablonskaya arrived in New York in 1977, unknown, unheralded, and not having touched a piano in more than two years. She made her first New York appearance in a recital at the Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center only four months later, and received laudatory acclaim from the press. Her Carnegie Hall debut recital the following October was attended by a capacity crowd, and she has since taken her place among the major pianists of the world.
Once considered 'The best kept secret of the Soviet Union,' Ms. Yablonskaya has now performed in more than 40 countries.
Following her triumph at her London recital debut in the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1982, the Daily Telegraph wrote: "Yablonskaya is the sort of pianist who accomplishes with ease and naturalness what others struggle for a lifetime to achieve." In 1986, following her Canadian performance with the National Symphony under conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, a music critic of the Toronto Star wrote, "She played Rachmaninoff's 3rd as if it was written for her.
Ms. Yablonskaya has emerged as one of the most compelling talents of her generation. She has performed with many of the finest symphony orchestras in the world and with many of the leading conductors of our time. An extraordinary recitalist, she is equally renowned for solo performances with orchestras such as:
| Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Baltimore Symphony Orchestra BBC Philharmonic Orchestra Bolshoi Orchestra Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra Berlin Radio Symphony Capetown Symphony Orchestra Dallas Symphony Orchestra Denver Symphony Orchestra Detroit Symphony Orchestra El Paso Symphony Orchestra Flagstaff Festival Orchestra Florida Gulf Coast Symphony Gurzenich Orchester Halle Orchestra Hamilton (Ontario) Symphony Orchestra Hong Kong Symphony Orchestra Houston Symphony Orchestra KBS Symphony Orchestra Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Moscow Philharmonic Moscow Symphony Orchestra Monterey County Symphony Orchestra Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra National Symphony Orchestra USA National symphony Orchestra Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra S. Africa New Jersey Symphony Orchestra New West Symphony Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie |
Norfolk Symphony Orchestra Norwalk Symphony Orchestra Novicibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra Oakland Symphony Orchestra Orchestra London (Canada) Orquesta Sinfonia de Castilla y Leon Orquesta Sinfonia Brasileira Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Quebec Symphony Orchestra Queensland Symphony Orchestra Residence Orchestra of The Hague Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra San Antonio Symphony Orchestra Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra Singapore Symphony Orchestra State Orchestra of the USSR Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra Sydney Symphony Orchestra Syracuse Symphony Orchestra Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra Vienna Radio Symphony Warsaw Radio Symphony West Australian Symphony Orchestra Taipei City Symphony White Plains Symphony Orchestra Wichita Symphony Orchestra Williamsburg Symphonia Worthing Symphony Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra |
In addition to Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, she has performed in the Royal Albert Hall in London, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Royal Concergebouw, Amsterdam, Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, Great Hall of St. Petersburgh Philharmonic, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Sheldonyan Theatre and Holywell Music Room in Oxford, England and many more.
celebrated conductors such as:
Alexander Anissimov
Yury Aronovitch
Rudolf Barshai
Herbert Bloomstaadt
Boris Brott
Abraham Chavez
Sergiu Comissiona
Franz Paul Decker
Alexander Dmitriev
Lawrence Foster
Youosh Forst
Pierro Gamba
Fedor Gluschenko
Inbal
Arnold Katz
Anton Kersies
Dmitry Kitaenko
Eric Klaas
Kirill Kondrashin
Uri Maier
Fuat Mansurov
Nathan Rakhlin
Mstislev Rostropovitch
Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Yury Simonov
Stanislaw Skrowachevsky
Pavel Sorokin
Yevgeny Svetlanov
Yuly Turowsky
Victor Yampolsky
In 1990, after a 13 year absence, Ms. Yablonskaya returned to Russia for a sold-out concert, master classes and recitals at the Moscow Conservatory. Since then she has returned on a regular basis and is once more recognized as an elite piano virtuoso in Russia.
In recent years, Ms. Yablonskaya has collaborated with her son, renowned cellist/conductor, Dmitry Yablonsky. Their concerts have enjoyed vast public and critical acclaim. The New York Times called their Carnegie Hall debut, "A vibrant dialog." Their recordings together include duo performances for cello and piano as well as Khachaturian and Glasunov piano concertos recorded with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofieff, Brahms, Liszt 1st concertos and Chopin 1st and 2nd Concertos with Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and Mr. Yablonsky conducting.
In addition to her success as a concert pianist and recording artist, Ms. Yablonskaya has held the position of Professor of Piano at The Julliard School in New York City. She has lectured numerous master classes at many distinguished music schools, academies, conservatories and festivals throughout the world such as Newport and Bowdin in USA, Flaine and Tours in France, Lago Maggiore in Switzerland, Oxford Philomusica in England. Dr.Yablonskaya is a Co-Founder of Puigcerda Musica Clasica International Festival in Spain since 1998.
Ms. Yablonskaya also serves on the jury of many international piano competitions such as Leeds in England, Fraz Liszt in the Netherlands, Prokofiev in St. Petersburgh, Russia, Hamamatsu in Japan, competitions in Taiwan, Andorra, at the 2005 Seiler International Piano Competition and Vladimir Horowitz International Piano Competition.
Among her numerous recordings, Ms. Yablonskaya's Liszt/Schubert CD won the Grand Prix du Disque from the International Liszt Society in Budapest. In the December 1995 review of her Tchaikovsky CD, the American Record Guide wrote, "Oxana Yablonskaya is an artist who deserves to be heard and in any repertory she chooses."
