Krainev was born in
Krasnoyarsk, the son of musician Vsevolod Krainev and pediatrician Rachil Gerschoig. He studied at the Central School of the
Moscow Conservatory in the class of
Anaida Sumbatyan, and also studied at the Conservatory in the classes of
Heinrich Neuhaus, and his son,
Stanislav Neuhaus. After winning second prize at the
Leeds International Piano Competition and first prize at the
Vianna da Motta International Music Competition (ex-aequo with
Nelson Freire), and especially after his victory at the fourth
International Tchaikovsky Competition in
Moscow (first prize ex-aequo with
John Lill), his career as a pianist began. He performed with some of the world's leading orchestras and conductors, and collaborated with renowned artists throughout the world.
Alfred Schnittke dedicated one of his piano concertos to him. International music festivals known as "The Invitation of Vladimir Krainev" were held each year in
Ukraine,
Kazakhstan, and
Kyrgyzstan, and concerts called "Vladimir Krainev: his Friends and Pupils" were given annually at the Moscow Conservatory. Krainev was a jury member of many international piano competitions, for instance:
Leeds, Lisbon, and
Tokyo, as well as the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Vladimir Krainev was a professor at the
Hochschule für Musik und Theater in
Hannover, Germany, where 29 young pianists from the
People's Republic of China,
France, Germany,
Korea,
Russia, Ukraine, and other countries studied with him. Among his students were
Katia Skanavi, Vladimir Sverdlov, Igor Tchetuev,
Aglika Genova and Liuben Dimitrov,
Pascal Godart,
Alexandre Moutouzkine, Irma Issakadze, Denys Proshayev, Hisako Kawamura,
Dong-Min Lim,
Ilya Rashkovsky, Mariya Kim,
Ingmar Lazar,
Gintaras Januševičius, Paul Kern, Lin Ye, Chun-Chieh Yen,
Sun Ho Lee, and
Sung Chang. In 1992, Krainev organized the first international competition of young pianists in
Kharkiv, Ukraine.He lived in Hannover, and was married to
Tatiana Tarasova, a renowned
figure skating coach, who trained the winners of nine
Olympic gold medals.[http://tatiana-tarasova.co.tv/ On 29 April 2011 Krainev died in his house in Hannover, aged 67. == References ==