A Moscow Conservatory graduate, Nicolai Petrov (1943-2011) was considered one of the most outstanding pianists of his generation. His concerts in Russia and overseas were sell-outs, with a repertoire which included 50 solo programs and 55 concerts with orchestra. Back in 1986, the French Academie Balzac awarded the Russian pianist with its Grande Medaille d’Or for his excellent performances worldwide of scores by Berlioz, Beethoven and Franz Liszt. He was always greeted with standing ovations wherever he performed - in the Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center or the Chopin-Pleyel Hall, the Concertgebouw or Royal Albert Hall.

Nicolai Petrov was born into a family of musicians; his grandfather was a soloist at the Bolshoi Theater for over 20 years. The promising pianist won recognition in 1962 when he took the silver medal at the First International Van Cliburn Competition in the USA and two years later was awarded the silver medal at the Queen Elisabeth Competition.

Afterwards, he performed and recorded with some of Russia’s leading directors, such as Evgeny Svetlanov, Yury Temirkanov, Gennady Rozhdestvensky and Pavel Kogan, just to name a few. He has performed with the world’s leading orchestras, including the New York Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.