Editing Vladimir Ashkenazy (section)

==Personal life==
[[File:Jury Kirill Kondrashin concours, Bestanddeelnr 933-0956 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Ashkenazy (1984)]]
In 1961, he married the [[Iceland]]-born Þórunn Jóhannsdóttir, who studied [[piano]] at the [[Moscow Conservatory]].<ref name="Independent"/> To marry Ashkenazy, Þórunn was forced to give up her Icelandic citizenship and declare that she wanted to live in the USSR. Her name is usually transliterated as "Thorunn"; her nickname is Dódý,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishpathe.com/video/russian-pianist-vladimir-ashkenazy-interviewed/query/Hotel|title=Russian Pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy Interviewed|website=Britishpathe.com|access-date=4 January 2019}}</ref> so she is called Dódý Ashkenazy.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://music.apple.com/us/album/rachmaninov-transcriptions/1452170312|title=Rachmaninov: Transcriptions by Alastair Mackie, Dody Ashkenazy, Vladimir Ashkenazy & Vovka Ashkenazy|access-date=4 January 2019|website=[[iTunes]]|date=January 2002 }}</ref>

After numerous bureaucratic procedures, the Soviet authorities agreed to allow the Ashkenazys to visit [[Western Bloc|the West]] for musical performances and for visits to his parents-in-law with their first grandson. In his memoirs, Soviet leader [[Nikita Khrushchev]] recollected that Ashkenazy on a visit to [[London]] had refused to return to the Soviet Union. Khrushchev mentioned that Ashkenazy then sought advice from the Soviet Embassy in London, who in turn referred the matter to Moscow. Khrushchev said he was of the opinion that to require Ashkenazy to return to the USSR would have made him an "Anti-Soviet". He further said that this was a good example of an artist being able to come and go in and out of the USSR freely, which Ashkenazy said was a gross "distortion of the truth".<ref>Khrushchev Remembers, London 1971 p. 521</ref> In 1963, Ashkenazy decided to leave the USSR permanently, establishing residence in London, where his wife's parents lived.

The couple moved to Iceland in 1968 where, in 1972, Ashkenazy became an Icelandic citizen.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/38311/Vladimir-Ashkenazy Vladimir Ashkenazy]. Encyclopædia Britannica.</ref> In 1970 he helped to found the [[Reykjavík Arts Festival]], of which he remains Honorary President.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.listahatid.is/en/about/organisation/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20131104092345/http://www.listahatid.is/en/about/organisation/|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 November 2013|title=Organisation — Reykjavík Artfest|date=4 November 2013|website=Archive.vn|access-date=4 January 2019}}</ref><ref>[http://www.efa-aef.eu/en/festivals/members/profile/663/Reykjavik%20Arts%20Festival/ European Festivals Association] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121231232113/http://www.efa-aef.eu/en/festivals/members/profile/663/Reykjavik%20Arts%20Festival/ |date=31 December 2012 }}. Efa-aef.eu. Retrieved on 29 October 2013.</ref> In 1978 the couple and their (then) four children (Vladimir Stefan, Nadia Liza, Dimitri Thor, and Sonia Edda) moved to [[Lucerne]], Switzerland. Their fifth child, Alexandra Inga, was born in 1979. Beginning in 1989, Ashkenazy resided in [[Meggen]], Switzerland, on [[Lake Lucerne]].<ref>[http://bazonline.ch/leben/gesellschaft/Es-ist-schwer-die-Sowjetunion-zu-vermissen/story/12490064 Interview with Vladimir Ashkenazy] ''Basler Zeitung'', 3 March 2015</ref> His eldest son Vladimir, who uses his nickname 'Vovka' as a stage name, is a pianist, as well as a teacher at the Imola International Piano Academy. His second son, Dimitri, is a clarinetist.