Ари Варди

Vardi began his concert career at fifteen. He won the Chopin Competition in Israel and shared second prize at the Enescu Competition in Bucharest in 1961, when no first prize was awarded. Born in Tel Aviv, he studied at the Rubin Academy and took a law degree at Tel Aviv University before continuing in Basel with Paul Baumgartner and working on composition with Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen. As soloist-conductor he has played the complete Bach and Mozart concertos, and his programmes have taken in Debussy, Ravel and Israeli music of his own time. His students in Tel Aviv and Hanover have included Yefim Bronfman, Yundi Li, Beatrice Rana and Yeol Eum Son, among many others. He has chaired the Arthur Rubinstein International Master Competition, and received the Israel Prize in 2017. His Hanover professorship dates from 1987, and he has sat regularly on the juries of international competitions. He also studied with Nadia Boulanger.