Dmitry Yablonsky was born in Moscow into a musical family. His mother is the famous pianist Oxana Yablonsklaya and his father is Albert Zaionz, who has been for 30 years solo oboe of the Radio and Television Orchestra in Moscow.
Dmitry began playing the cello when he was five years old and was immediately accepted into the Central Music School for gifted children. At the age of nine he gave his orchestral début playing Haydn´s Cello Concerto in C major. In Russia, Dmitry studied with Stefan Kalianov, who has been Rostropovich´s assistant, and Isaak Buravsky, who for many years was solo cello of Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. Before migrating to the United States he frequently performed in Moscow and in many other cities of the former Soviet Union. In support of his visa application to leave the Soviet Union many signatures from well known personalities, including Leonard Bernstein and Katherine Hepburn, were contributed to allow him and his mother to leave the country.
In 1977 Dmitry and his mother arrive in New York, where he auditioned for the Juilliard School of Music and was accepted to study with Lorne Munroe, solo cello of New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
In the summer of 1979, at the age of sixteen, Dmitry participated in the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont and was the youngest to do so that summer. Having heard him David Soyer, cellist of the Guarneri Quartet, invited Dmitry to study with him at the Curtis Institute of Music.
In the summer of 1980, Dmitry met Aldo Parisot, distinguished cellist and professor at Yale University, where Dmitry spent four years. At Yale he became interested in conducting after meeting Otto Werner Muller, professor of conducting.
After graduating from Yale, he spent two years undertaking the artist diploma program at the Juillard School of Music with Zara Nelsova. During this time Dmitry played for Janos Starker, Mstislav Rostropovich, Andre Navarra, Maurice Gendron and many others. During a festival at Camerino, Italy, he was asked to replace a conductor who had cancelled at the last minute. Dmitry was 26 years old when he made début conducting members of Santa Cecilia orchestra of Rome in Stravinsky’s Octet.
As a cellist he has played all over the world in venues as Carnegie Hall, La Scala, the Moscow Great Hall, St Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, Taiwan National Hall, Teatre Mogador, Cité de la Musique, the Louvre and many others. His distinguished chamber music partners have included Victor Tretyakov, Leif Ove Andsnes, Vadim Repin, Boris Berezovsky and Yuri Bashmet .
For four years Dmitry has been Principal Guest Conductor of Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and has conducted many orchestras around the world, including the Belgian National Orchestra, Catania Opera Orchestra, Netherlands North Orchestra, Holland Symphonia, Bologna Chamber Orchestra, Taiwan National Orchestra, Russian State Orchestra, Orchestre National d’Ile de France and Israel Symphony Orchestra.
He has collaborated with soloists such as Monserrat Caballe, Roberto Alagna, Olga Borodina and performed Penderecki’s Cello Concerto with the composer at the podium.
He has transcribed and edited works for cello, published by the International Music Company and Dover Publications.
Dmitry has made more than 70 recordings as conductor and cellist for Naxos and other labels, winning awards such as the Berlin Critic Prize, reaching the charts in the UK and USA, and, in 2007, receiving a Grammy nomination.
He has organized many festivals all over the world including the Qabala Festival in Azerbaijan, and the Wandering Stars Festival, which takes place in different countries each year.
Dmitry has two cellos, a Joseph Filius Andrea Guarneri of 1726 and Matteo Gofriller of 1700. He lives on the border of France and Spain in a beautiful Catalan Village in the mountains.
For more information, please visit his website http://www.dmitryyablonsky.com
