Vladimir Kern is a pianist, trumpet player, and conductor.

Born into a family of musicians, Vladimir Kern is a pianist, trumpet player, and conductor. At the age of six, Vladimir had already given his first public concert with an orchestra. He is the winner of the international charitable program “New Names,” and at the age of 13, he became principal trumpet of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, the youngest musician to achieve this position in its history. 

He studied at the Gnessin School of Music in Moscow, and then at the Moscow Conservatory. Kern has two Master’s degree diplomas—one in trumpet and one in opera-symphony conducting. He finished a postgraduate conducting program with legendary Russian conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky. 

As a conductor, his debut took place in 1999 at the Moscow Conservatory with the ensemble “Exelente.” In his conservatory student years, he was a guest conductor of the Ryazan Philharmonic Orchestra (Russia), the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra (South Africa), and he performed with many different orchestras all over the world as trumpet soloist. 

Vladimir has performed with such orchestras as the Russian National Orchestra, the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, and the State Chamber Orchestra of Russia. He performed with great soloists such as Vladimir Krainev, Arthur Moreira Lima, Konstantin Orbelian, Robertino Loretti, and Olga Kern, among many others. He has participated in many prestigious festivals, including “The Moscow Autumn” in Moscow (Russia), and has also given many masterclasses all over Russia. 

In 2005, in cooperation with his sister Olga Kern, he conducted Rachmaninoff’s four Piano Concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg (South Africa).

In 2006, he was invited to be the music director at the Russian Academy of Theatre Arts. He worked with the legendary Russian theater director Roman Viktyuk, where he performed productions of Fevei by Russian Baroque composer Vasily Pashkevich, Il Tabarro and Suor Angelica by Puccini, The Spanish Hour by Ravel, and The Human Voice by Poulenc. Vladimir has also written music to a play for a theatre production entitled Vasily Kariotsky.

Also in 2006, Vladimir made his United States conducting debut at New York’s Yamaha Concert  Hall on Fifth Avenue. Vladimir also collaborated with the legendary Russian rock group “Revival” and conducted concerts with them and the symphony orchestra in Moscow stadium “Luzhniki” and in St. Petersburg stadium “October.”

In 2007, Vladimir conducted the world premiere of Revolution Square by American composer Nathan Scalzone in Durban (South Africa), a concerto for piano and orchestra by David Earl in Cape Town (South Africa), and recently performed the world premiere of Russian composer Boris Frankshtein’s Memoirs of the Fifth Point for soprano, baritone, and symphony orchestra.

In 2010, Vladimir won the Grand Prix at the International Competition “New Generation” in Russia.

He taught at the State Music Academy in Moscow, where he was professor of music, conducting, trumpet, and orchestra classes. He was head of the department of the orchestra, the opera, and the symphony orchestra. He has performed as an opera conductor for such operas as Eugene Onegin and Iolanta by Tchaikovsky, Cinderella by Massenet, and Cavaleria rusticana by Mascagni.

He is actively supporting  modern Russian and international music and performs it often on many different stages all over the world.

He is involved with Vladimir Spivakov’s charitable foundation and also, since 2011, in collaboration with his sister Olga Kern, he founded the “Aspiration Foundation,” which helps and supports young talented musicians all over the world.

In 2016, Vladimir was a member of the jury and conducted the New Mexico Philharmonic at the final round of the first Olga Kern International Piano Competition.

From 2016–2018, Vladimir was professor in Tianjin Normal University (China). He taught piano, symphony orchestra conducting, and chorus conducting. Also, he was the consultant at the Tianjin Conservatory for the chamber ensemble classes. He was the member of the jury at the Ferencz Liszt Piano competition in Tianjin (2018) and the Second International Music Competition in Serpukhov (Russia). In addition, he gave masterclasses in Tianjin, Xiamen, Inchen, Huizhou, Kunming.

From 2018–2019, he served as the vice director and conductor at the Art Music School under the name of Alexander Scriabin (Moscow, Russia).

His current position is professor of music at the Nanjing Sinohorn International Music School (Nanjing, China).

Vladimir Kern will serve as a jury member for the Olga Kern International Piano Competition.