Uploaded November 2016 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Alexander Slobodyanik (1941-2008), piano
USSR Academic State Symphony Orchestra / Vladimir Verbitsky
Rec. 1978, live from the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory
Alexander Slobodyanik was born and raised in Ukraine. He studied with Vera Gornostayeva and Heinrich Neuhaus in Moscow and won the 4th prize at the 1966 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. Slobodyanik was recommended by Sviatoslav Richter to the impresario Sol Hurok, who brought him to America. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1968 in a solo recital. Following his American debut, Slobodyanik returned regularly for tours of the United States and Canada until 1979, when the cultural agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union was broken. After a nine-year absence from the American concert stage, his 1988 concert tour of the United States was hailed by the Chicago Tribune a “triumphant return.” Slobodyanik appeared at the world’s major music centers and performed with many leading orchestras. He lived the last part of his life in Morristown, New Jersey.
Photo: Alexander Slobodyanik on his first visit to New York, in 1968. Credit Robert Walker / The New York Times
Alexander Slobodyanik (1941-2008), piano
USSR Academic State Symphony Orchestra / Vladimir Verbitsky
Rec. 1978, live from the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory
Alexander Slobodyanik was born and raised in Ukraine. He studied with Vera Gornostayeva and Heinrich Neuhaus in Moscow and won the 4th prize at the 1966 Tchaikovsky Piano Competition. Slobodyanik was recommended by Sviatoslav Richter to the impresario Sol Hurok, who brought him to America. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1968 in a solo recital. Following his American debut, Slobodyanik returned regularly for tours of the United States and Canada until 1979, when the cultural agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union was broken. After a nine-year absence from the American concert stage, his 1988 concert tour of the United States was hailed by the Chicago Tribune a “triumphant return.” Slobodyanik appeared at the world’s major music centers and performed with many leading orchestras. He lived the last part of his life in Morristown, New Jersey.
Photo: Alexander Slobodyanik on his first visit to New York, in 1968. Credit Robert Walker / The New York Times
