Nikolai Lugansky is a Russian pianist from Moscow. At the age of five, before he had even started to learn the piano, he learned a Beethoven piano sonata completely by ear and performed it from memory. He studied piano at the Moscow Central Music School and the Moscow Conservatory. His teachers included Tatiana Kestner, Tatiana Nikolayeva and Sergei Dorensky. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Lugansky won prizes at numerous piano competitions. At the same time he began to make recordings on the Melodiya and Vanguard Classics labels. His performance at the Winners' Gala Concert of the 10th International Tchaikovsky Competition was recorded and released on the Pioneer Classics label, on both CD and video laser disc formats. This was followed by more recordings for Japanese labels. He went on to make recordings for Warner Classics, Pentatone, Onyx Classics and Deutsche Grammophon. He currently records for Na�ve Classics. Lugansky has performed together with Vadim Repin, Alexander Kniazev, Anna Netrebko, Joshua Bell, Yuri Bashmet, Vadim Rudenko, Mischa Maisky and Leonidas Kavakos, among others. 

April 26th, 1972 in Moscow (Age 52)