[1] Born in Leningrad in 1972, he began his musical training studying voice, following the example of his parents, who were singers, and later shifted his emphasis to conducting while a student at the Glinka Chapel School and the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.

His formal piano training took place at the Moscow Conservatory Music College with Galina Eguiazarova.

In Madrid, he studied at the Reina Sofía School of Music with Dmitri Bashkirov and Galina Eguiazarova.

[2] Despite the relative brevity of his formal studies, Volodos has rapidly moved into the elite pantheon of the world's most distinguished pianists.

[3] Thomas Frost, the producer of many of Vladimir Horowitz's recordings, and producer of Volodos' recordings for Sony Classical, has said that Volodos "has everything: imagination, colour, passion and a phenomenal technique to carry out his ideas."