Clarinetist Dimitri Ashkenazy is internationally prominent both as a concerto soloist and as a chamber music player. The son of piano and conducting superstar Vladimir Ashkenazy, he has sometimes performed with his father.
Ashkenazy was born in New York on October 8, 1969. His mother, Þórunn Jóhannsdóttir, was Icelandic, and he spent his childhood in Iceland. When he was nine years old, his leg was mutilated in a water-skiing accident and had to be surgically reconstructed in Australia. Ashkenazy took up the piano at six but switched to the clarinet at ten. His family moved t...