Finished the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music in 1965.
The range of activities of Vladimir Tonkha is extremely wide. He performs solo and symphonic concerts, plays in chamber ensembles, including the Moscow Cello Quartet, which he has created.
The repertoire of Vladimir Tonkha is enormous, embracing all periods of cello music. He also performs numerous arrangements and transcriptions for other instruments, many of which are done by him.
He has toured successfully in the majority of European countries, Japan, the United States and Canada and performed in the concert halls of the Moscow Conservatory, the Petersburg Philharmonic, Concertgebouw (Holland), Gewandhaus, Cologne Philharmonic, Suntory Hall (Japan) and many others.
Vladimir Tonkha's musical talent has attracted the attention of contemporary composers for years. He is known as an outstanding interpreter of contemporary music, the first performer of over a hundred new works of domestic and foreign music. His album with Sofia Gubaidulina's Seven Words of Christ released by Melodiya and recorded with Timur Mynbaev and Fridrikh Lips brought him a Golden Diapason of the French Diapason magazine in 1993. V. Tonkha has also partnered with other great musicians: Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Valery Gergiev, Eric Klass, Yuri Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Irina Arkhipova, Yuji Takahashi, Tatyana Grindenko, Oleg Yanchenko and many others.
Tonkha has been a judge at a number of international and domestic competitions, including several Tchaikovsky Competitions. He has also participated in many international festivals in Helsinki, Lokenhaus, Tokyo, Beauvais, Amsterdam, Budapest, Salzburg, Boston, etc.
As the head of the department of cello, double bass and harp of the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music, V.Tonkha has trained many laureates of International and All-Russian competitions. His students successfully perform in Russia and abroad, work in leading Russian universities and universities of many countries.
