Alexander Slobodyanik

Alexander Artemyevich Slobodyanik was a Soviet and American pianist, born on 5 September 1941 in Kyiv. He became known as a major concert pianist whose career developed from the Soviet musical system and later continued in the United States. In 1970 he was awarded the title Honored Artist of the RSFSR.

He studied from 1948 at the Lviv Secondary Specialized Music School with L. V. Galembo. From 1957 he continued at the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory with S. L. Dizhur, then studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Heinrich Neuhaus and completed postgraduate studies there, graduating from the class of Vera Gornostaeva. From 1966 he was a soloist of the Moscow Philharmonic.

Slobodyanik had been active as a touring pianist since the 1960s. He performed throughout Eastern and Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, and Latin America. His Carnegie Hall debut in 1968 was highly praised by Arthur Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz. He appeared with major orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Kirov Orchestra, the National Orchestra of France, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Moscow Soloists, working with conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, John Barbirolli, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Neeme Jarvi, Dmitri Kitayenko, Kirill Kondrashin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Thomas Sanderling, Maxim Shostakovich, Yuri Temirkanov, and Yuri Bashmet.

As an interpreter he was especially admired for Romantic repertoire, above all the music of Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Modest Mussorgsky. He was also closely associated with the music of Sergei Prokofiev and Alfred Schnittke. His playing was noted for combining expressive phrasing with virtuosity. Alfred Schnittke dedicated his piano work Aphorisms to Slobodyanik.

Among his competition achievements were 7th prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1960 and 4th prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1966. These distinctions helped establish his international reputation and supported a long performing career on major stages.

In 1989 he moved with his family to the United States, and from 1990 he lived in New York; in his final years he lived in New Jersey. He taught at the Ukrainian Music Institute of America in New York and in his own studio at Montclair University, gave lectures at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, and regularly presented master classes. In September 1994 he initiated the Morristown International Festival of the Arts, opening it with a gala concert in which he appeared as soloist.

Slobodyanik died of infectious meningitis on 11 August 2008 in New Jersey, aged 66. He was buried at Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv. His life linked the musical cultures of Ukraine, the Soviet Union, and the United States, and he remained remembered as a distinguished virtuoso pianist of broad international stature.