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Alexander Ardakov was born in Kuibyshev (now Samara), a Russian town in the Volga region. He began studying music at the town's Special Music School with Lyia Klempert, and later at the Kuibyshev Musical College under Lydia Muraviova, the former pupil of two famous Moscow professors Vladimir Belov and Heinrich Neuhaus. While studying at the College he started to perform recitals and to play with the Kuibyshev Symphony Orchestra and won the National Kabalevsky Young Pianist Competition. He continued his education at the Moscow Conservatoire with Vera Gomostaeva and he was a prizewinner at the Viotti International Competition in Vercelly, Italy in 1984.
Between 1981 and 1991, working as a soloist and a chamber musician at the Moscow State Philharmonia, he performed extensively throughout the U.S.S.R and abroad, producing numerous recordings with the U.S. S. R Radio Broadcasting Corporation and with the "Melodia" recording company.
Since 1991 Alexander Ardakov has been a Professor of Piano at Trinity College of Music in London.
He has performed for BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM and has made several CD recordings, including Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Alexander Gibson. Among his recent engagements are recitals at the Bösendorfer Hall in Vienna, at St. John's, Smith Square in London, at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York, at Gasteig Concert Hall in Munich and a much acclaimed concert in London's Wigmore Hall in September 1998. He has also given recitals and masterclasses at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and at the California State University. Other performances include recitals at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco, at the Wooburn Festival and at the Colchester Institute and a performance of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto at the Buckingham Festival.
He also performed with the Everett (Seattle) Symphony Orchestra in May 2000.
