Born in St. Petersburg in 1972, Volodos first studied voice and conducting and did not begin serious training at the piano until 1987 at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He pursued his studies further at the Moscow Conservatory with Galina Egiazarova, then in Paris and Madrid.

Since his New York début in 1996, Arcadi Volodos has performed throughout the world in recital with many of the most eminent orchestras and conductors, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony and New York Philharmonic. Volodos regularly appears in recitals at the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna’s Musikverein and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris as well as in all the other important music centres of Europe, the USA and Japan. Since his highly acclaimed début at the Salzburg Festival in 2002, he has been invited to return there every year.

His 2010/11 engagements include recitals and concerts in Korea, London, Vienna, Madrid, St Petersburg, Amsterdam, La Roque d’Antheron and the Salzburg Festival as well as concerts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris and Berlin Philharmonic. Highlights of his 2011/12 season include recitals in Brussels, Munich and Raiding (Liszt’s birthplace), as well as at the Vienna Musikverein and Amsterdam Concertgebouw, plus concerts with the Philharmonia.

Arcadi Volodos’s now historic Carnegie Hall recital debut in 1998 was recorded and released by Sony Classical. Since then the label has issued a series of acclaimed CDs featuring his interpretations of Schubert sonatas, Rachmaninoff solo pieces and transcriptions as well as live performances with the Berlin Philharmonic. In 2010 his Musikverein recital from the previous year was released on CD and DVD to rapturous international critical acclaim.