Dimitri Ashkenazy is an Icelandic clarinetist living in Switzerland.
Background
He is the son of pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy and has toured Europe with him, as well as performing under him with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Dimitri Ashkenazy was born into a musically successful family: he is the son of pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy and Þórunn Jóhannsdóttir, and his brother Vovka is also a professional pianist.
Career
At the age of 9, he was involved in a waterskiing accident in Greece when one of his legs was slashed by the propeller of a speedboat, leaving him severely jaundiced. He was brought to Sydney to Professor Earl Owen, a pioneer in microsurgery, to have the leg rebuilt. Ashkenazy received music lessons on the piano from the age of six, and at the age of 10 he switched to the clarinet.
A 1994 review in Stereo Review said of his interpretation of Richard Strauss, "The performers.. give an excellent account of themselves and of the delectable music"
Since 1991, he has given concerts all over the world, including at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, the Sydney Opera House, in London"s Royal Festival Hall, the Salzburg Festival, the Rudolfinum in Prague and at the Salle Pleyel in Paris.
He has worked with prestigious orchestras such as the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czechoslovakian Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Saint St. Petersburg Philharmonic and with renowned artists such as Peter Maxwell Davies, Krzysztof Penderecki, Edita Gruberová, Barbara Bonney and Bernd Glemser. He has toured Europe with his father, and has performed under him with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Ashkenazy has premiered four clarinet concertos: Concerto per Clarinetto e Orchestra Piano Americano of Italian composer Marco Tutino at Teatro alla Scala, Passages for clarinet and orchestra by Filippo del Corno, Richard Festinger"s Equinox and George Palmer"s concerto lieutenant Takes Two, for two clarinets and chamber orchestra.
Membership
He was a founding member of the European Soloists Ensemble in 1992.