Beginning his artistic career at the age of fifteen, Israeli born Arie Vardi went on to receive international acclaim as one of the country's foremost pianists.
After winning the Chopin competition in Israel, he appeared with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, with Zubin Mehta; and upon winning the George Enescu International Competition in Bucharest, he played numerous concerts throughout Europe. Alongside his study of music at the Rubin Academy, he suceeded in achieving a degree in law at Tel Aviv University. Vardi continued his piano studies in Basel with Paul Baumgartner and studied composition with Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Nadia Boulanger.
Vardi has performed widely as soloist with major orchestras under the batons of Semion Bychkov, Sergio Commissiona, Gustavo Dudamel, Lukas Foss, Jerzy Makymiuk, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Paul Paray, Paul Sacher, David Zinman, and David Robertson, among others.
Concert tours have taken him to Australia, Europe, the Far East, Latin America and the United States. He played together with Yo-Yo Ma, Radu Lupu, Joseph Silverstein, Yefim Bronfman, Pnina Salzman, Murray Perahia, and András Schiff.
In addition to his concert carrer, Vardi is a professor of piano at the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover and at the Buchmann-Meta School of Music in Tel Aviv, where he served as director and chair of the Piano Faculty. He has seerved as artist-in-residence at Juilliard and as professor at Yale University. Over 50 of his students have won first prizes at international competitions. For over 30 years he has been active as a conductor, performing with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra among others, and at major festivals such as Aspen, Salzburg and more.
Vardi performs regularly as soloist-conductor, playing the complete set of concerti by Bach and Mozart, part of which he has played on the Hammerfluegel. In recent years, he has specialized in the literature of the Impressionist period, including the entire repertoire of Debussy and Ravel. He conducted and played a series of five concerts with the Israel Chamber Orchestra, featuring 15 concerti ranging from Bach to the 21st century. He also performed alongside some of his former students the complete Beethoven sonatas.
Vardi is best known to television for his series "Master Classes", the family series of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, which he conducted and presented, and for his series "Intermezzo with Arik". He has been on the jury in most of the leading international piano competitions such as China, Cleveland, Hamamatsu, Leeds, Milan, Tchaikovsky in Moscow, Munich, Salt Lake City, Santander, Sydney, Tokyo, Vienna, Chopin in Warsaw, Van Cliburn and others.
