The pianist, conductor and teacher Arie Vardi combined music studies at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv with law studies at Tel Aviv University, before continuing his musical education with Paul Baumgarten in Basle. He also honed his composition skills with Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Arie Vardi won the Israeli Chopin Competition and also the International George Enescu Competition in Bucharest. Subsequently, he began a very active concert life across Europe, performing as a soloist and with the major orchestras. He has also worked with such outstanding conductors as Lukas Foss, Kurt Masur, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Zubin Mehta, Paul Paray, Paul Sacher, Gustav Dudamel and David Zinman. He has performed in concert in Europe, the US, Latin America, Japan, Australia and the Far East. He appears as soloist-conductor, performing concertos by J. S. Bach and Mozart. He also specialises in the performance of impressionist music.
He is a teacher at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv and the Hochschule für Musik in Hanover. He gives masterclasses in London, Moscow, Paris, New York and elsewhere and is co-creator of television programmes, including ‘Master Class’ and ‘Intermezzo with Arik’.
He has sat on the jury of international competitions around the world, including in Leeds, Hamamatsu, Moscow, Munich, Salt Lake City, Santander, Sydney, Tokyo and Vienna. He has also been a jurist of the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw three times (1995, 2000, 2005). He is artistic advisor and chair of the jury of the International Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition.
In 2004, his achievements were recognised with a distinction from the Ministry of Education.
