Since coming to prominence in the 1955 Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Vladimir Ashkenazy has built an extraordinary career as one of the most renowned pianists of our times and an artist whose creative life encompasses a vast range of activities, offering inspiration to music lovers everywhere. Currently Conductor Laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and NHK Symphony Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, he has previously held posts as Music Director of the European Union Youth Orchestra, Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and Music Director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra. He maintains his devotion to the piano, these days mostly in the recording studio where he continues to build his extraordinarily comprehensive discography. This includes recordings of Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues (winner of a Grammy), Rautavaara’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (a work which he commissioned), Bach’s Wohltemperierte Klavier, transcriptions by Rachmaninoff, and Beethoven’s ‘Diabelli’ Variations. ‘Ashkenazy: 50 Years on Decca’, a fifty-CD box set celebrating his long-standing relationship with that label, is a milestone collection of his vast catalogue of the piano music of Rachmaninoff, which also includes all his recordings as a conductor of the composer’s orchestral music. In June 2016 Vladimir Ashkenazy released his latest album, a recording of Shostakovich’s Piano Trios Nos 1 and 2 and Viola Sonata.