Lev Vlassenko was a Soviet and Russian pianist and pedagogue. He was born on 24 December 1928 in Tiflis, now Tbilisi, into the family of Nikolai Vlassenko and Vera Benditskaya. His first musical training came from his mother, a graduate of the Tbilisi Conservatory, and he later studied with A. D. Virsaladze in the group for gifted children at the Tbilisi Conservatory. At the age of ten he made his debut at the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Zakaria Paliashvili, performing Beethoven's First Piano Concerto.
In 1953 he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied piano with Yakov Flier, and in 1958 he completed postgraduate studies under the same teacher. At the same time, he attended the evening department of the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages, graduating in 1954. He spoke English, French, and Italian fluently and also served in the Soviet Army.
Vlassenko's talent gained wide recognition through his appearances at international competitions. In 1956 he won first prize at the Franz Liszt International Competition in Budapest. Two years later he became the second-prize laureate of the First International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, уступing first prize only to Van Cliburn. From 1958 he began his career as a concert pianist and performed extensively in Russia and abroad. His repertoire included works by Liszt, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Scarlatti, Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Brahms, Debussy, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and other composers.
Alongside his performing career, he taught piano for many decades. From 1952 he taught at the Moscow Choral School and later at the Gnessin Music School. For 39 years, beginning in 1957, he taught at the Moscow Conservatory, rising from assistant to Professor Flier to head of department; he became docent in 1965 and professor in 1976. From the early 1990s he was also professor at Indiana University in Bloomington and the New England School of Music in Boston in the United States. Many of his students became prize-winners at international competitions and leading teachers at conservatories in Russia, the former Soviet republics, and other countries.
He also served on the juries of many major international piano competitions, including those in Santander, Sydney, Tokyo, Montreal, Athens, Bolzano, Warsaw, and Budapest. In 1994 he was chairman of the jury of the Tenth International Tchaikovsky Competition. He headed the association of laureates of the Tchaikovsky Competition and later the Russian branch of the European Piano Teachers Association, EPTA Russia. He appeared frequently on television and radio, recorded 22 LPs, and 11 compact discs of his performances were released. He also founded a children's competition named after Tchaikovsky.
During the last two years of his life he lived in Brisbane, Australia, where he taught at the Queensland Conservatorium of Griffith University. In 1996 Griffith University awarded him the title of Doctor in recognition of his major contribution to the development of the Australian piano school. Lev Vlassenko died on 24 August 1996 in Brisbane. His ashes were interred at Vagankovo Cemetery in Moscow.
He received numerous honors, including Merited Artist of the RSFSR, People's Artist of the RSFSR, and People's Artist of the USSR in 1991. His memory has been preserved in several ways: in 1999 the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition was established in Brisbane as Australia's largest national piano competition, a Moscow music school was named after him, and an annual open competition for young pianists in Moscow also bears his name. Books devoted to his life and work were published in 2002 and 2013.