In 2005, Vladimir Ovchinnikov received Russia's highest award and honor for musicians: the title National Artist of Russia, awarded by Russian president, Vladimir Putin. The only pianist ever to win the top prizes at both the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (1982) and the Leeds International Piano Competition (1987), Mr. Ovchinnikov is also a laureate of the Concours International de Montréal (1980). It was his success in Leeds that established his international career, beginning with a triumphant debut performance in London in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen.

Mr. Ovchinnikov's concerto appearances include the Chicago Symphony, Flint Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Princeton Symphony, all the major London orchestras, Bournemouth Symphony, Hague Residentie Orkest, Hallé Orchestra (Manchester), Leipzig Gewandhaus, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Zurich Tonhalle, among others. He appears frequently with such leading Russian orchestras as the Moscow Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, with whom he has toured France, the Netherlands and North and South America.

Vladimir Ovchinnikov has collaborated with many renowned conductors, among them Vladimir Ashkenazy, Matthias Bamert, James Conlon, Alexander Dmitriev, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Neeme Järvi, Yakov Kreizberg, Libor Pesek, Valery Poliansky, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Thomas Sanderling, Maxim Shostakovich, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and Sir Georg Solti. Festival appearances include Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Schleswig-Holstein, Singapore, Hollywood Bowl and Van Cliburn (Fort Worth). He has also appeared in many of the world's most prestigious venues: Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Vienna Musikverein, Théâtre de Champs-Elysées in Paris, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Great Hall of Moscow's State Conservatory, and the Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic.

Among Mr. Ovchinnikov's recordings are compilations of Liszt, Prokofiev and Rachmaninov for EMI Classics; Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and the Shostakovich First Piano Concerto (with Maxim Shostakovich) for Collins Classics; and Rachmaninov's Etudes-Tableaux Op. 33 and 39 for Olympia.

A graduate of the Moscow Conservatory where he studied with Alexey Nasedkin, Vladimir Ovchinnikov is resident professor of piano at the Moscow Conservatory and guest professor of piano at Sakuyo University in Japan.