The first steps in music were taken with his mother, the classical singer, voice teacher and pianist Nathalia Viardo.
Only when Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in the Soviet Union the freedom to travel was restored, and in 1987 Viardo was permitted to accept engagements in Germany and in the United States.
His international roster of students includes young artists from Eastern Europe, as well as Portugal, Spain, Mexico, South Africa and the United States.
Viardo's master classes are much in demand throughout the world and his name appears in the book The Most Wanted Piano Teachers in the USA.
[2][3] Since returning to the West where his international career resumed with several concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln and Kennedy Centers, Salle Pleyel and the Concertgebouw, Viardo's tours have taken him to American, Canadian and European cities, Asia and South Africa as well as to Israel, Central and South America, appearing as soloist with conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Spivakov, Dmitri Kitayenko, Eduardo Mata, Anatoly Zatin, Kirill Kondrashin, and Krzysztof Penderecki.