Mikhail Rudy

Mikhail Rudy (: born 3 April 1953) is a French pianist, who has won several awards for his recordings including the Grand Prix du disque.

Life and career Rudy was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan where his family had been deported by the Soviet regime. His grandparents were imprisoned in concentration camps. His family moved from Tashkent to Siberia, then to a small village near Voronezh until they were finally "rehabilitated" in Stalino (Donetsk), in eastern Ukraine.

Rudy's interest in music began at the age of 5 when he heard a neighbor play the violin. Despite difficult living conditions, Rudy began music lessons and pursued his studies in music at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow under Yakov Flier. He greatly impressed the jury at the Marguerite Long Competition in 1975 through his performance of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata (regarded as among the most challenging solo works in the entire piano repertoire) in which he won the First Prize. performing Beethoven's Triple Concerto with Mstislav Rostropovitch and Isaac Stern. Shostakovich: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 with the London Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Mariss Jansons (EMI Classics) Janáček: Concertino; Capriccio with L'Orchestre de L'Opéra National de Paris conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras (EMI Classics) Brahms: Works for Solo Piano (EMI Classics) Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 2 and 24 Preludes (EMI Classics) Stravinsky: Petrouchka (transcription by Stravinsky/Rudy) (EMI Classics) Solo piano works by Szymanowski, Ravel, Schubert, Liszt and Scriabin (EMI Classics) Original piano works and partly unpublished transcriptions by Richard Wagner (EMI Classics)