Classical Music & High Culture
Composers, conductors, ballet dancers and opera singers from the Russian classical tradition.
Russian classical culture — the composers, the conductors, and above all the ballet — reshaped world art. From the Ballets Russes that stunned Paris to the virtuosos who filled Western concert halls after emigrating, this tradition remains one of the civilization’s most visible global exports. This category documents its figures.
Aaron Copland
Brooklyn-born voice of the American heartland
Alexander Glazunov
St. Petersburg's last Romantic, exiled in Paris
Alexander Godunov
Bolshoi's star who chose freedom over the Bolshoi.
Daniil Trifonov
Nizhny Novgorod piano prodigy called the most complete musician of his generation
Dimitri Tiomkin
Born in Ukraine, composed the soundtrack of Hollywood's golden age
Efrem Zimbalist
Rostov violin virtuoso who became director of the Curtis Institute and shaped American classical music
Evgeny Kissin
Moscow piano prodigy who debuted at Carnegie Hall at 19 and never looked back
George Balanchine
The Georgian-Russian who reinvented ballet for America
George Gershwin
Brooklyn-born son of Odessa, soundtrack of America
Gidon Kremer
Riga-born violin virtuoso who defected from the USSR and became a champion of new music
Gregor Piatigorsky
Born in Dnipro, became the greatest cellist of the 20th century after fleeing the Bolsheviks
Grigory Sokolov
Leningrad pianist who wins Tchaikovsky Competition at 16 and refuses to record — only live performance
Igor Levit
Nizhny Novgorod-born pianist who became Germany's most politically outspoken classical star
Igor Stravinsky
Born near St. Petersburg, composed The Rite of Spring and changed music forever
Irving Berlin
The immigrant who wrote America's anthem
Jascha Heifetz
Born in Vilnius, became the greatest violinist of the 20th century — possibly of all time
Kirill Petrenko
Omsk-born conductor who became Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic — the world's greatest orchestra
Leon Bakst
Born in Grodno, designed the Ballets Russes costumes that made Art Nouveau fashionable across the world
Leonard Bernstein
America's maestro, born of the Pale's diaspora
Leopold Auer
Hungarian-born violin teacher who trained Heifetz, Milstein and Zimbalist — the greatest pedagogue in history
Lera Auerbach
Chelyabinsk-born composer and pianist who became one of the most performed living composers in the world
Martha Argerich
Buenos Aires piano legend whose mother has Russian-Jewish roots — the greatest living pianist
Maxim Vengerov
Novosibirsk violin prodigy who became one of the greatest violinists of his generation
Maya Plisetskaya
The greatest Soviet ballerina — born in Moscow, died in Germany, danced Dying Swan until age 70
Michel Fokine
Born in St. Petersburg — the choreographer who reformed ballet and created The Dying Swan for Pavlova
Mischa Maisky
Riga-born cellist who studied with Rostropovich and became one of the most celebrated soloists alive
Mstislav Rostropovich
Born in Baku — the greatest cellist in history, who played Bach as the Berlin Wall fell
Nathan Milstein
Born in Odessa, trained by Auer and Ysaÿe — one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century
Nicolai Gedda
Son of a Russian Don Cossack — became the most versatile operatic tenor of the 20th century
Nikolai Medtner
Moscow composer and pianist of German-Russian heritage — Rachmaninoff called him the greatest living composer
Rudolf Nureyev
The Soviet defector who conquered the world's stages
Semyon Bychkov
Born in Leningrad — chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic and one of the world's great maestros
Serge Koussevitzky
Born in Vyshny Volochyok — the conductor who made the Boston Symphony Orchestra the greatest in America
Serge Lifar
Born in Kyiv — the most important ballet director in 20th-century France, built the Paris Opera Ballet
Sergei Prokofiev
Born in Donetsk — composed Peter and the Wolf, Romeo and Juliet, and returned to Stalin's USSR to his doom
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Born near Novgorod — the composer whose Second Piano Concerto is the most romantic music ever written
Tatiana Leskova
Born in Paris to Russian émigré parents — became the mother of Brazilian classical ballet
Teodor Currentzis
Athens-born conductor trained in St. Petersburg who became one of classical music's most controversial and brilliant maestros
Tugan Sokhiev
Born in Vladikavkaz — chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Born in Gorky — the most recorded classical pianist in history, who defected and became an Icelandic citizen
Vladimir Horowitz
Born in Berdychiv, Ukraine — the greatest pianist of the 20th century, who fled Russia with Nathan Milstein in 1925
Vladimir Jurowski
Moscow-born conductor who leads the Bavarian State Opera and London Philharmonic — the heir to the German conducting tradition
Vladimir Spivakov
Born in Ufa to a family of musicians — founded the Moscow Virtuosi and became Russia's most beloved conductor
Yehudi Menuhin
His parents came from Gomel and Crimea — he became the greatest violinist of his generation and a human rights champion