Nikolai Petrov

Hailing from Moscow, Nikolai Petrov ranked among the foremost classical pianists of his era. Long after his first international appearance nearly forty years earlier—when he earned a silver medal at the Van Cliburn International Competition and took second place at the Queen Elizabeth International Competition—he sustained an active career as performer, instructor, and advocate for the arts. In addition to maintaining a yearly schedule of roughly one hundred recitals, he instructed students at the Moscow Conservatory while presiding over both the Academy of Russian Arts and the All-Russia Society.

The Christian Science Monitor asserted that he possessed "all the technique, heart, and mind to make him a giant among pianists," and the Canadian magazine L'Action wrote, "this Russian pianist has no weaknesses. He has only youth and dash and the deepest respect for the music, as if it were a living being."

Petrov entered a household steeped in music and dance. His grandfather had performed on bass at the Bolshoi Theater from the 1970s onward. Following lessons with Tatiana Kestner at the Central Music School, he advanced to the Moscow Conservatory, where he worked under Professor Jakov Zak. In 1986 the Balsac French Academy awarded him a gold medal for his readings of Beethoven, Berlioz, and Liszt; ten years afterward the same institution designated him Musician of the Year.