Pianist, teacher, educator, Chairman of the jury and Music Advisor of the Rubinstein Competition,
Prof. Arie Vardi, has been announced as Israel Prize laureate in music, 2017.
The prize committee’s arguments for electing Vardi were his achievements as a performing artist
and his enormous contribution to the advancement and subsistence of classical music culture in Israel.
The committee also noted his impact on the development of Israeli music and Israeli musicians abroad:
“Through extensive activities both as a pianist, and as a renowned international teacher, as well as presenting music to the general public, in concerts and TV.”
Vardi has been Chairman of the jury of the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Israel for many years and recently served as Chairman of the Arthur Rubinstein International Youth Piano Competition in China. He has served as an adjudicator in many international piano competitions, including the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow, Leeds competition in the UK and the Van Cliburn competition in the United States.
Vardi was the first musician to present “Lecture-Concerts”, both in concerts and on radio programs.
He has been making television programs, for many years, the most well-known being “Intermezzo with Arik”, where he hosts musicians, including celebrated international artists.
Dozens of Arie Verdi’s students have become top performers, all over the world, and hold important positions in various institutions, and his influence as a pedagogue of classical music has reached every corner of the globe.
Vardi constantly performs as a pianist and as a conductor, in Israel and abroad.
With his many activities, he continues to contribute to the development of classical music. He is a faculty member at Buchmann-Mehta school – Tel Aviv University and at the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover, Germany.
He gives master classes at distinguished music institutions around the world, from Juilliard in New York to Harbin, China.
Arie Vardi was born in 1937 in Tel Aviv to Zionist parents and dedicated educators.
His teachers in Israel were Neima Rosh, Ilona Vincze-Kraus and Frank Peleg; and Paul Baumgartner, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Nadia Boulange – abroad.
Vardi is also a graduate of the Tel Aviv University Law Faculty.
He began his concert performances when he was 15. In 1960 he won the Chopin Competition in Israel and a year later Enescu Prize in Bucharest. His extensive career took off, from then.
The Arthur Rubinstein International Music Society and its Board of Directors are proud of Arie Verdi’s accomplishments and respect him tremendously for being awarded this distinguished prize.
