The New York Times said of Viardo, “Mr. Viardo favors strong contrasts of mood, tempo, tone and dynamics, but he does not carry them to the point of caricature.”

Born in 1949 at Krasnia Polana in the Caucasus, USSR, Vladimir Viardo studied with Irina Naumov at the Gnessin State Musical College and later studied with Lev Naumov at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory where Naumov would describe him as “my number one pupil.”   During this time, he was tenured as a soloist by Moscow Philharmonia, the primary music organization of the USSR. After obtaining a doctorate, he was immediately engaged as assistant professor with Naumov at the Conservatory. At 21, Viardo took the third prize and the Prix du Prince Rainier at the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition, and in 1973 first prize at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He had already launched an impressive global career when his travel visa was mysteriously revoked. For nearly thirteen years, Viardo was a virtual prisoner of the Iron Curtain. During this closed period, he developed new horizons in his artistic achievements, vastly enlarging his repertoire, eventually including 37 concertos. Only when Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in the Soviet Union was freedom to travel restored, and in 1987 Viardo was permitted to accept engagements in Germany and the United States.

After returning to the West, his international career resumed with several concerts at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Salle Pleyel, and the Concertgebouw, and he has appeared as soloist with most of the important conductors including Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Spivakov, Dmitri Kitayenko, Eduardo Mata, Anatoly Zatin, Kirill Kondrashin, and Krzysztof Penderecki.

He joined the University of North Texas College of Music faculty as artist-in residence in 1989. An extraordinary and celebrated teacher, his international roster of students includes young artists from Eastern Europe, as well as Portugal, Spain, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States. Viardo's master classes are much in demand throughout the world and his name appears in the book The Most Wanted Piano Teachers in the USA. Park ICM is thrilled to have this world-class master on stage to coach an ICM student right before the audience in this extraordinary educational opportunity.

His performance will include Piano transcriptions of Schubert, Lieder by Liszt, and Debussy’s Second book of prelude.