Valerij Voskobojnikov

Born in Kharkiv (USSR, now Ukraine) in 1939, Valerij Voskobojnikov studied at the “P. I. Tchaikovsky” Conservatory in Moscow with the famous pianist and teacher Heinrich Neuhaus, with whom he graduated in 1963. In the same Conservatory he met the Italian pianist Marisa Tanzini, who became his wife when he moved to Italy in 1965. Here he held numerous concerts as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles (“Glinka” Quintet), presented the works of “avant-garde” Soviet composers (Volkonsky, Denisov, Schnittke, Gubajdulina, others) in Italian premieres, collaborated with the New Consonance and the Musical Renewal Group, performed the early and late works of Dmitry Shostakovich and organized the music section of the historic Biennale of Dissent in 1977 in Venice. He was for five years assistant to Stanislav Neuhaus, son of H. Neuhaus, in the courses of the Accademia Chigiana in Siena and at the Conservatory of Perugia. For more than 40 years he has dedicated himself to teaching piano and masterclasses held in the Conservatories of Rome, Palermo, Perugia, Ferrara, Bologna, L’Aquila, where his former students also teach. In 1990 he founded with them the Musical Association “Heinrich Neuhaus” which currently continues to exist as the Cultural Association “Neuhaus Foundation”. For years he has been writing concert programs for the Accademia di S. Cecilia and the Roman Philharmonic, for Ferrara Musica, for various festivals. He translated and edited the book “L’arte del piano” by H. Neuhaus for Rusconi and Sellerio, and also for Sellerio the book “Memoirs and articles”, also relating to Neuhaus, his Maestro. In 2019 he participated in the creation of the Dmitry Shostakovich Anthology for Mudima Editore. He worked for almost forty years at the Italian national network RAI as a consultant and musical expert, especially for Radio Tre.