Arkady Aronov

Before coming to the United States in 1977, Russian pianist Dr. Arkady Aronov was one of the leading pianists in the Soviet Union. Soviet Music, the most prestigious Russian musical journal, wrote that Aronov “presents any music with equal clarity, expression, and finality. As a most accomplished pianist he is a welcome sight on any concert stage and should be ranked among the best pianists of our time.” In the United States, Dr. Aronov has been acclaimed by the New York Times as “a pianist of high caliber” and “model of clarity and good sense,” a “thundering virtuoso” whose playing is “authoritative and personal.”

Dr. Arkady Aronov studied piano with the renowned Savshinsky at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory of Music in Leningrad. In 1960 he was appointed professor of piano at his alma mater, a position he held until emigrating in 1977. Dr. Aronov gained a reputation in Russia as an outstanding interpreter of baroque, classical, romantic, and contemporary music for the keyboard. His repertoire includes more than forty-five complete recital programs and twenty-four piano concerti. In addition to playing over a thousand recitals in the Soviet Union, appearing as guest soloist with numerous orchestras and on radio and television throughout Russia’s major cities, he presented four historic series of twenty concerts, embracing the music of three centuries in the Leningrad Concert Hall. He was the first to perform the music of leading contemporary Russian composers and debuted some Western compositions in Russia. His performance of Aaron Copland’s Sonata won the praise of the composer, for whom Mr. Aronov gave a special performance in Leningrad.

Dr. Aronov has written numerous scholarly works, including “Dynamic, Articulation and Tempi in Beethoven’s Piano Compositions.” He also edited and published two collections of concert piano pieces by the Russian avant-garde and was the founder and editor of a series of 18 volumes for students, entitled “Contemporary Composers for Youth.”

Dr. Arkady Aronov has been a member of the piano faculty at Mannes College of Music since 1977 and of the Manhattan School of Music College and Precollege piano faculty since 1984. He is a Steinway artist. His students are among the winners of more than 100 international, national, and school competitions (including 68 first prizes). Among the piano competitions are the Van Cliburn (special award for semi-finalists), Gina Bachauer, New Orleans, San Antonio, San Jose, Alabama, Cincinnati (AMSA), Palm Beach, Frina Awerbuch, Leschetizky, and Hilton Head Island International Piano Competition. His graduates are on the piano faculties at prestigious universities and colleges in the U.S., including Yale University School of Music, Mannes College of Music, University of Utah, Brigham Young University, California State University, Michigan State University. Many of them enjoy active concert careers in the United States and throughout the world.

In addition to his full-time positions in New York, Dr. Aronov conducts piano master classes in the U.S., Italy, France, Spain, Russia, China, India, Taiwan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Costa Rica. He is a piano faculty member of several festivals, including the Summit Music Festival (U.S.), Burgos International Music Festival (Spain), the Meranofest and the International Academy of Music in Castel Nuovo di Garfagnana (both in Italy).

Dr. Aronov believes that a composer’s text (“Urtext”) is the gospel for musicians. The student and the teacher must permanently learn this inexhaustible source of wonderful discoveries as deeply as possible. To be based on performing traditions is another important principle of Dr. Aronov’s pedagogy. In his understanding, a tradition is alive and useful only when it is updated from the contemporary perspective and includes an individual interpretation of a composition.

Dr. Aronov as a musician and pedagogue has been the subject of doctoral theses by young researchers who chose his teaching methods and style as their topic. In 2010, Dr. Aronov received the most prestigious award of Manhattan School of Music, the Presidential Medal for Distinguished Faculty Service and extraordinary pedagogical influence in the community.