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Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy was born in Gorky, USSR, on July 6, 1937. His parents were both professional pianists and taught him piano beginning at age six. His father was a non-observant Russian Jew, and his mother was a Russian of (Christian) Orthodox faith. After his debut in Moscow at the tender age of eight, Ashkenazy was subsequently put on track for a musical career and enrolled in Moscow's Central Music School. His regular piano teacher there was Anaida Sumbatian. In 1955 he entered the Moscow Conservatory, studying with the great pianist Lev Oborin. In the same year he won second prize in the Fifth Warsaw International Chopin Competition. In 1956 he won the Gold Medal in the Brussels Queen Elizabeth International piano competition, and then toured the United States in 1958. In 1961 he married an Icelandic pianist who was studying in Moscow, Sofia Johannsdottir. He won first prize in the Second Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1962, sharing that honor with British pianist...