Toradze, Alexander (David)
Toradze, Alexander (David)
Toradze, Alexander (David), Russian-American pianist and teacher, son of David (Alexandrovich) Toradze ; b. Tbilisi, May 30, 1952. He was a pupil at the Central Music School (1958-69) and Cons. (1969-71) in Tbilisi, and later studied at the Moscow Cons. with Yakov Zak, Boris Zemlyansky, and Lev Naumov. He began his career at the age of 9 with an appearance with the Tbilisi Sym. Orch., and subsequently toured widely in his homeland; he attracted wide notice in the West when he won the Silver Medal at the Van Cliburn Competition in 1977, which led to engagements in the U.S. In 1983 he settled in the U.S. but continued to pursue an international career in his many tours. In 1992 he became prof, of piano at Ind. Univ. in South Bend.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire