Dimitri Ashkenazy, Clarinet
Born in 1969 in New York, Dimitri Ashkenazy began playing the piano at the age of six
and then switched to the clarinet under the tuition of Giambattista Sisini, with whom
he continued studying when he entered the Conservatory of Lucerne in 1989. Since
completing his studies, he has gone on to perform widely, both as soloist and chamber
musician. On tour, he has appeared at the Royal Festival Hall in London with the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra, at the Hollywood Bowl with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester
Berlin, at the Sydney Opera House with the SBS Youth Orchestra, at the Casals Festival
in Puerto Rico with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and in Japan with the Japan
Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony and Mito Chamber Orchestras.
In addition to the major concertos for the clarinet, his repertoire extends to include contemporary works such as Peter Maxwell Davies' Strathclyde Concerto No.4, which he has performed with the composer himself conducting both in London and Santiago de Compostela, and Krzysztof Penderecki's own transcription of his Viola Concerto with the composer himself conducting both in Poland and on tour in Spain. He also gave the world premiere performances of concertos by Marco Tutino (with the Filarmonici della Scala, Milan) and Filippo del Corno (with the orchestra "I Pomeriggi Musicali"), and of Peter Maxwell Davies' Clarinet Quintet "Hymn to Artemis Locheia" (with the Brodsky Quartet at the Lucerne Festival). An active chamber musician, he has performed with the Kodály and Faust Quartets and with partners such as Barbara Bonney, Helmut Deutsch, David Golub, Edita Gruberova, Ariane Haering, Antonio Meneses, Cristina Ortiz, Maria João Pires, and of course his brother Vovka and his father Vladimir Ashkenazy.
In addition to his concert activity, Dimitri Ashkenazy has made numerous CD (Pan Classics, Decca, Ondine), radio (Radio Nacional de España, France Musiques, Radio della Svizzera Italiana, DeutschlandRadio) and television recordings, and been invited to give master classes in Australia, Spain, Iceland, Switzerland and the U.S.
Engagements for Dimitri Ashkenazy in the 2009-10 season include appearances with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Osaka Century Orchestra, and the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, as well as chamber concerts in Romania, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, the Ukraine, Cambodia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Italy, Morocco, Norway, the USA, Austria, Australia, and New Zealand.