 thumb|vladimir ashkenazy in 2007 thumb|ashkenazy with his wife ÃÃ³runn and eldest son vladimir in 1963 vladimir davidovich ashkenazy (, vladimir davidoviÄ aÅ¡kenazi; born july 6, 1937) is a russian-born pianist and conductor of icelandic and swiss citizenship. == life == ashkenazy was born in gorky, soviet union (now nizhny novgorod, russia), to the pianist and composer david ashkenazi and to the actress yevstolia grigorievna, born plotnova. his father was jewish and his mother was the daughter of a family of russian orthodox peasants.ashkenazy â still russian to the core, the independent, 3 october 2008 (retrieved 23 october 2008)iceland review online: daily news from iceland, current affairs, business, politics, sports, culture. icelandreview.com (2005-12-06). retrieved on 2013-08-02.ashkenazy, vladimir. enotes.com. retrieved on 2013-10-29. he began playing piano at the age of six. he was accepted to the central music school at age eight studying with anaida sumbatyan. ashkenazy attended the moscow conservatory where he studied with lev oborin and boris zemliansky. he won second prize in the international 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 british pianist john ogdon. as a student, like many in that period, he was harassed by the kgb to become an "informer". he did not really cooperate, and despite pressures from the authorities, in 1961 married the iceland-born ÃÃ³runn jÃ³hannsdÃ³ttir, who studied piano at the moscow conservatoire. to marry ashkenazy, ÃÃ³runn was forced to give up her icelandic citizenship and declare that she wanted to live in the ussr. after numerous bureaucratic procedures, the soviet authorities several times agreed to the ashkenazys to go to the west for musical performances and for visits to his parents-in-law with their first grandson. in his memoirs, khrushchev recollects that ashkenazy had married an englishwoman [sic] and on a visit to london refused to go back to the soviet union. khrushchev mentions that ashkenazy then went to the soviet embassy in london and asked what to do, who in turn referred the matter to moscow. khrushchev claims to have been of the opinion that to require ashkenazy to return to the ussr would have made him an 'anti-soviet'. he further 
1937_births 20th-century_conductors_(music) 21st-century_conductors_(music) Grammy_Award-winning_artists Honorary_Members_of_the_Royal_Academy_of_Music Icelandic_people_of_Jewish_descent Living_people Moscow_Conservatory_alumni Naturalised_citizens_of_Iceland People_from_the_canton_of_Lucerne Prize-winners_of_the_International_Chopin_Piano_Competition Prize-winners_of_the_International_Tchaikovsky_Competition Prize-winners_of_the_Queen_Elisabeth_Music_Competition Russian_Jews Russian_classical_pianists Russian_expatriates_in_the_United_Kingdom