Born in 1969 in New York, Dimitri Ashkenazy began playing the piano at the age of six and then switched to clarinet under the tuition of Giambattista Sisini, with whom he continued studying when he entered the Conservatory of Lucerne.

Since completing his studies, he has gone on to perform at home in Switzerland and abroad, both as soloist and chamber musician. On tour, he has appeared at the Royal Festival Hall in London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, at the Hollywood Bowl with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, at the Sydney Opera House with the SBS Youth Orchestra, in Puerto Rico with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and on tour in Japan with the Japan Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Mito Chamber Orchestra.

This season’s engagements include concerts with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Euskadi, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy.  In recent seasons, he has appeared with the Helsinki Philharmonic with Hannu Lintu, the English Chamber Orchestra and Warsaw Philharmonic under Vladimir Ashkenazy, with Sinfonia Varsovia under Krzysztof Penderecki and Jacek Kaspszyk (at the Penderecki Festival in Krakow and Warsaw Autumn Festival performing the clarinet version of Penderecki’s Viola Concerto), Iceland Symphony with Michael Christie, Camerata Academica Salzburg at the Snow & Symphony Festival in St Moritz, and in the US with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Napa Valley Symphony and Oklahoma City Philharmonic.

In addition to the major concertos for the clarinet, his repertoire extends to include contemporary works such as Peter Maxwell Davies’ Strathclyde Concerto No.4 which he has performed with the composer himself conducting both in London and this season in Spain, with a further performance in July 2004 with the Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn.  He has also given the premiere performances of concertos by Marco Tutino with the Filarmonici della Scala, Milan and by Filippo del Corno with the orchestra “I Pomeriggi Musicali”.

He has also performed with the Kodaly and Brodsky Quartets and in recital with chamber partners such as Edita Gruberova, Barbara Bonney and Helmut Deutsch (at Salzburg Festival and in Köln and Feldkirch), Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vovka Ashkenazy, Ariane Haering, Vladimir Mendelssohn and Jean-Jacques Kantorow.

Dimitri Ashkenazy lives in Switzerland.