imported>Jevansen: Moving from Category:20th-century classical pianists to Category:Soviet classical pianists using Cat-a-lot

2025-03-08T04:05:49Z

Moving from Category:20th-century classical pianists to Category:Soviet classical pianists using Cat-a-lot

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{{Infobox musical artist
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Lev Vlassenko
| honorific_suffix = [[People's Artist of the USSR]]
| image =
| image_upright =
| image_size =
| landscape = 
| alt =
| caption =
| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
| native_name = Лев Никола́евич Вла́сенко
| native_name_lang =
| birth_name = Lev Nikolaevich Vlassenko
| alias =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1928|12|24|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Tbilisi]], [[Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic]]
| origin =
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1996|08|24|1928|12|24|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Brisbane]], Australia
| genre = [[Classical music]]
| occupation = Pianist
| instrument = Piano
| years_active = 
| label = [[Melodya]]
| associated_acts =
| website = {{URL|classical.ru/e/VlassenkoLev/index.html}}
}}

'''Lev Nikolaevich Vlassenko''' ([[Russian language|Russian]]: Лев Никола́евич Вла́сенко; 24 December 1928 – 24 August 1996), was a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] pianist and teacher.

==Biography==
Lev Vlassenko was born on 24 December 1928 in [[Tbilisi|Tiflis]], [[Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic|Georgian SSR]], Soviet Union to Nikolai Appolonovich Vlassenko and Vera Solomonovna Benditskaya.

Lev Vlassenko's first music teacher was his mother Vera. Lev entered the music school for gifted children in Tiflis in the class of [[Anastasia Virsaladze|Anastasia Davidovna Virsaladze]] - herself a pupil of the renowned [[Anna Yesipova]]. Lev began to play in public at an early age. At the age of ten years, he played Beethoven's [[Piano Concerto No. 1 (Beethoven)|Piano Concerto No. 1]] with renowned conductor [[Odysseas Dimitriadis]]. In 1948, Lev Vlassenko entered the class of [[Yakov Flier]] at the [[Moscow Conservatory]] and completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

He gained international recognition after winning the First Prize and Gold Medal at the [[Franz Liszt International Piano Competition (Budapest)|Franz Liszt International Piano Competition]] in [[Budapest]] in 1956. He and Chinese pianist [[Liu Shikun]] came second to [[Van Cliburn]] at the inaugural [[International Tchaikovsky Competition|International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition]] in 1958.

Lev Vlassenko taught at the Moscow Conservatory for 39 years. He taught several world-renowned pianists such as [[Mikhail Pletnev]], [[Victor Eresko]],<ref>''88 notes pour piano solo'', [[Jean-Pierre Thiollet]], Neva Editions, 2015, p.348. {{ISBN|978-2-3505-5192-0}}</ref> [[Kalle Randalu]], [[Mykola Suk]], [[Lev Vinocour]], Vladimir Daych, Gennady Dzubenko, Rena Shereshevskaya, [[Sergueï Kouznetsov]], [[Natasha Vlassenko]], Oleg Stepanov, Boris Petrov, [[Teofils Biķis]], Karine Oganian, [[Jania Aubakirova]], Justas Dvarionas, Alexander Strukov, [[Duncan Gifford]] and others. In the early 1990s he was professor in the United States at [[Indiana University]] and the [[New England Conservatory]], Boston.

Lev Vlassenko was a jury member in many international piano competitions. They include the [[Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition|Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition]] (1984),<ref>[http://www.concursodepianodesantander.com/C_Concursos_Premiados.aspx Paloma O’Shea Santander International Piano Competition “Winners, members of the jury and artistic guests”]</ref> International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, the [[Sydney International Piano Competition]], the [[Leeds International Pianoforte Competition]], the [[International Chopin Piano Competition]] in Warsaw, the Liszt Piano Competition in Budapest, the [[Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition|Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition]] in Tel Aviv and others. Lev Vlassenko became the President of the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition jury in 1994. He also headed the “International Association of Tchaikovsky Competition Stars”.

In 1991 he was decorated a [[People's Artist of the USSR]].

During his final years, Vlassenko resided in [[Australia]], teaching at the [[Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University]]. He was awarded an [[honorary degree|honorary doctorate]] by [[Griffith University]] in 1996 in recognition of his vast contribution to the development of the Conservatorium.

He died on 24 August 1996 in [[Brisbane]], Australia.

==Memory==
Lev Vlassenko recorded 22 disks and 8 CDs.

In 1999, his daughter, Natasha Vlassenko, and son-in-law, Oleg Stepanov, founded the [http://www.lev-vlassenko.com/ Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition] in his memory. The competition takes place in Brisbane every two years since 1999.

One of the Moscow music schools is named after Lev Vlassenko.

Every year the Vlassenko Piano Competition for Children takes place in Moscow.

In 2009 the book "Lev Vlassenko. Articles, reminiscences, interviews" was published in Brisbane.

At the [[Sydney International Piano Competition]], the Lev Vlassenko Memorial Prize is awarded for the best performance of a virtuoso study.

==Words of appreciation==
* ''Lev Vlassenko is a splendid musician - clever and talented. This was particularly displayed in his performance of the Liszt Sonata, which sounded wonderfully integral. One rarely has such and orchestral manner of performance combined with technical perfection.'' – [[Heinrich Neuhaus]]

* ''Lev Vlassenko is a great artist. Listeners enjoyed his excellent performance of Liszt's Sonata in B minor, a piece which is extremely complicated because of its profound ideas and virtuosity. A magnificent sense of form and style of different pieces such as the Liszt Sonata and the Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue in D minor...'' – [[Sviatoslav Richter]]

* ''... the pianist displayed clarity, wide breath of sincerity and deep penetration into the music.'' – [[Emil Gilels]]

* ''His unpretentious temperament and natural virtuosity always serve the noble aim of revealing the inner essence of the composition. A remarkable sense of form, combined with deep sincerity is the most important feature in Lev Vlassenko's artistic image.'' – [[Yakov Flier]]

* ''...a musician conveying deep inner thoughts and emotions that purify and enrich people's souls.'' – [[Ivan Kozlovsky]]

* ''Lev Vlassenko is an extraordinary personality with a beautiful, elevated creative nature, and a remarkable musician. He is a pianist with his own specific manner of performing – strict, but brilliant and, at the same time, deep.'' – [[Innokenty Smoktunovsky]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* Official website about Lev Vlassenko in russian [http://lev-vlassenko.ru/]
* For complete information about the musician, please see web page of Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition [https://web.archive.org/web/20140125025455/http://www.lev-vlassenko.com/content/view/12/32/]
*{{Find a Grave}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vlassenko, Lev}}
[[Category:1928 births]]
[[Category:1996 deaths]]
[[Category:Burials at Vagankovo Cemetery]]
[[Category:Musicians from Tbilisi]]
[[Category:Classical pianists from Georgia (country)]]
[[Category:Russian classical pianists]]
[[Category:Male classical pianists]]
[[Category:People's Artists of the USSR]]
[[Category:Jews from Georgia (country)]]
[[Category:Jewish classical pianists]]
[[Category:Soviet classical pianists]]
[[Category:20th-century Russian male musicians]]
[[Category:Soviet emigrants to Australia]]
[[Category:Moscow Conservatory alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century Jews from Georgia (country)]]
[[Category:20th-century musicians from Georgia (country)]]

Lev Vlassenko - Revision history

imported>Jevansen: Moving from Category:20th-century classical pianists to Category:Soviet classical pianists using Cat-a-lot