Anatoly Ivanovich Vedernikov was a Soviet and Russian pianist. He was born on 3 May 1920 in the family of a manager of the stationery department of a shop. He began studying piano at the age of six and was taught by Vera Dillon. In 1930 he started his performing career, toured in China and Japan, and then returned to Russia.
From 1936 he studied at the Moscow Conservatory in the class of Heinrich Neuhaus. In 1942 he became a soloist of Mosconcert. In the late 1930s his family suffered under Stalinist repression: his father was executed and his mother was sentenced to eight years in prison. During the Second World War Vedernikov married Olga Gekker, daughter of the philosopher Yuly Gekker. Their son Yuly Vedernikov later became an artist.
Vedernikov was a friend of Sviatoslav Richter, and in the 1940s and 1950s they gave several joint performances. He was especially noted for performing piano works by contemporary composers. He became the first performer in the Soviet Union of Sergei Prokofiev's Fourth Piano Concerto, and he collaborated with Dmitri Shostakovich, giving the first performances of the First and Twenty-Fourth Preludes and Fugues. Other works he premiered included Galynin's First Concerto, Sidelnikov's First Sonata, Ustvolskaya's Second Sonata, Frid's Sonatina, Razorionov's Variations on a Theme by Bach, and Karetnikov's Lento Variations.
He also introduced a number of foreign piano works to Soviet audiences for the first time, including Stravinsky's Movements, Hindemith's Ludus tonalis, Schoenberg's Piano Concerto, Vladigerov's Third Piano Concerto, and Krenek's Six Pieces. From 1963 he toured in socialist countries; in 1980 he also performed in Italy and Scotland, and later in Finland and West Germany.
In 1958 Vedernikov became a teacher at the Gnessin Musical-Pedagogical Institute, where he became an associate professor in 1963. From 1980 he taught at the Moscow Conservatory and in 1985 became a professor there. In 1983 he was awarded the title Honored Artist of the RSFSR. He lived in Moscow on Raskovoy Street. Vedernikov died on 29 July 1993 at his home in the settlement of Klyazma near Moscow after a long illness.