Vladimir Pankov

Born in Moscow, he early showed interest in traditional Russian music and took part in several expeditions studying various folklore traditions. He was trained as an actor at O.L. Kudryashov’s workshop at the Russian Theatre Academy (GITIS) that he finished in 1999. Between 1999 and 2003 he was an actor with the Moscow State Variety Theatre. He set up “The Pan-Quartet” music group in 2000. The group created music for theatrical productions and appeared at many European Festivals.

Vladimir Pankov plays many musical instruments, both classical and ethnic: clarinet, horns, flute, jijiridu, guitar, charanga, balalaika, psaltery, brass, percussions and some others. He has taken part in many folk festivals and has been performing with many jazz and classical musicians. As a pedagogue he taught choreography, gesture and acting techniques at the Concord Center.

In 2005 Pankov set up the SounDrama studio as a creative association of directors, actors, choreographers and designers producing works based on the synthesis of the arts: drama, choreography and music.

As an actor Pankov appeared in many theatrical productions and films. In the recent years he has been working extensively as a theatre director having staged A.Zheleztsov’s Run All Through (2003), Y.Isayeva’s Doc. tor (2005), The Underpass (2006), M.Bulgakov’s Morphine (2006), M.Tsvetayeva’s The Fine Young Man/Le Gars (2007), Gogol. The Evenings after N.Gogol (2007, 2008, 2009), W.Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (2009), Rain outside the wall and Machine by Y.Clavdiev. (2013), Tale after A.Pushkin (2013), The Yard by E.Isaeva (2014), Duck Hunting by A.Vampilov (Et Cetera, 2015) Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf by E.Albee (2015), and Zoyka’s Apartment by M.Bulgakov (Ekaterinburg) and etc. The coproductions of the Chekhov Festival with SounDrama Studio include: A.Chekhov’s The Wedding (2009), M.Saltykov-Shchedrin’s and W.Irving’s Gorod.OK (Town), History (2011), Orpheus Syndrome after V.Mayakovsky and J.Cocteau (2013), The War after R.Aldington, N.Gumilev and Homer (2015) and others.

In 2012 he made his debut as a film director with a picture of Doc.tor based on the play of the same name. As a composer and music director Pankov took part in over 30 theatre and film projects.

Vladimir Pankov is a holder of the following awards: Debute-2003 Prize for vocal parts in the play Sweet Bird of Youth; Chaika Prize for the music of the play Twelfth Night; Prize of the “Moskovskiy Komsomolets” newspaper for the best music of the year and the best supporting role in the play Plastilin staged by K.Serebrennikov, the Golden Mask Award as the best director of a musical (A Car, 2015, Gogol Centre).

In 2015 the production of The War and its makers have received the award of “Moskovskiy Komsomolets” daily in the following nominations: Best Large-Format Performance in the category “The Half-Maitres”; Best Female Part in the category “The Maitres” (Eugenia Simonova and Yelena Shaina); Best Male Part in the category “The Beginners” (Pavel Akimkin).

Among the last works of Vladimir Pankov are: Bulgakov's Zoyka's Apartment (2015, Ekaterinburg, Prize of the Governor of Sverdlovsk District), Lermontov's Demon (2016, Bishkek), Chekhov's Three Sisters (2017, Saint Petersburg) and Klavdiev's Moscow – the Open City. The Underpass (2017, Moscow).

Vladimir Pankov is Vice-President of International Confederation of Theatre Associations (elected by ICTA Managing Council in 2013).
In August 2016 he was appointed the Artistic Director of The Center of Drama and Directing.