Born in Moscow to a Jewish family, Yablonskaya was a pupil of pianist
Anaida Sumbatyan at the Moscow Central School for the Gifted where she studied from the ages of six through sixteen. She then pursued further studies in her native city with
Alexander Goldenweiser upon entering the
Moscow Conservatory as well as Goldenweiser's Assistant Dmitry Bashkirov. She was a student of
Tatiana Nikolayeva in her Doctorate program. After graduating from the conservatory in 1965, she joined the school's piano faculty. She went on to win top prizes in the
Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition in 1963, Rio de Janeiro Piano Competition in 1965 and the
International Beethoven Piano Competition Vienna in 1969. Yablonskaya was invited to perform with orchestras and in concert halls in the West during the 1960s and 1970s, but was never allowed to accept the engagements by the Soviet government. She also performed throughout the USSR and made numerous recordings on the
Melodiya label. She was named a "Soloist of the
Moscow Philharmonic" and was also highly active as a soloist with the
Bolshoi Orchestra. In 1975 Yablonskaya, along with her father and son, applied for a visa to emigrate to the United States, originally wanting to go to Israel, thus becoming a
refusenik, and later that year Yablonskaya gave a critically acclaimed recital at
Carnegie Hall. This launched her career in the west, and she went on to appear with many of the world's finest symphony orchestras. As recording artist, Yablonskaya recorded for labels such as Melodiya,
Connoisseur Society, and
Naxos,. Yablonskaya is the Winner of the Grand Prix du Disque from the Liszt Society in Budapest for her recording of
Schubert transcriptions by Liszt. She is an Honorary Academician of the International Academy of the Arts at the United Nations, International Academy of the Arts in San Francisco and Independent Academy of Liberal Arts at the Russian Academy of Sciences. She is a Yamaha Artist. Yablonskaya is Online Master Teacher at
iClassical Academy with whom she has recorded several online Masterclasses. Yablonskaya's son,
Dmitry Yablonsky, is a noted cellist. The two have also been joined in concert by Oxana's clarinetist-husband Alexander Volchonok. In 2016 she
emigrated to Israel with her son, after becoming a citizen of the country in 2014, where she took up a position teaching piano at the
Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. ==References==