The Most Famous

MUSICIANS from Russia

This page contains a list of the greatest Russian Musicians. The pantheon dataset contains 3,175 Musicians, 49 of which were born in Russia. This makes Russia the birth place of the 8th most number of Musicians behind Italy, and Canada.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Russian Musicians of all time. This list of famous Russian Musicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Russian Musicians.

1. Alexander Glazunov (1865 - 1936)

With an HPI of 70.62, Alexander Glazunov is the most famous Russian Musician. His biography has been translated into 53 different languages on wikipedia.

Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov (10 August [O.S. 29 July] 1865 – 21 March 1936) was a Russian composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Russian Romantic period. He was director of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory between 1905 and 1928 and was instrumental in the reorganization of the institute into the Petrograd Conservatory, then the Leningrad Conservatory, following the Bolshevik Revolution. He continued as head of the Conservatory until 1930, though he had left the Soviet Union in 1928 and did not return. The best-known student under his tenure during the early Soviet years was Dmitri Shostakovich. Glazunov successfully reconciled nationalism and cosmopolitanism in Russian music. While he was the direct successor to Balakirev's nationalism, he tended more towards Borodin's epic grandeur while absorbing a number of other influences. These included Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral virtuosity, Tchaikovsky's lyricism and Taneyev's contrapuntal skill. Younger composers such as Prokofiev and Shostakovich eventually considered his music old-fashioned, while also admitting he remained a composer with an imposing reputation, and a stabilizing influence in a time of transition and turmoil.

2. Vladimir Ashkenazy (b. 1937)

With an HPI of 62.74, Vladimir Ashkenazy is the 2nd most famous Russian Musician. His biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (Russian: Влади́мир Дави́дович Ашкена́зи, Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazi; born 6 July 1937) is a Russian solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. Born in the Soviet Union, he has held Icelandic citizenship since 1972 and has been a resident of Switzerland since 1978. Ashkenazy has collaborated with well-known orchestras and soloists. In addition, he has recorded a large repertoire of classical and romantic works. His recordings have earned him seven Grammy Awards and Iceland's Order of the Falcon.

3. Nikolai Rubinstein (1835 - 1881)

With an HPI of 61.71, Nikolai Rubinstein is the 3rd most famous Russian Musician. His biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Nikolai Grigoryevich Rubinstein (Russian: Николай Григорьевич Рубинштейн; 14 June [O.S. 2 June] 1835 – 23 March [O.S. 11 March] 1881) was a Russian pianist, conductor, and composer. He was the younger brother of Anton Rubinstein and a close friend of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

4. Grigory Sokolov (b. 1950)

With an HPI of 59.76, Grigory Sokolov is the 4th most famous Russian Musician. His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Grigory Lipmanovich Sokolov (Russian: Григо́рий Ли́пманович Соколо́в; born April 18, 1950) is a Russian pianist with Spanish citizenship. He is among the most esteemed of living pianists, his repertoire spanning composers from the Baroque period such as Bach, Couperin or Rameau up to Schoenberg and Arapov. He regularly tours Europe (excluding the UK) and resides in Italy.

5. Valery Gergiev (b. 1953)

With an HPI of 58.09, Valery Gergiev is the 5th most famous Russian Musician. His biography has been translated into 44 different languages.

Valery Abisalovich Gergiev (Russian: Валерий Абисалович Гергиев, IPA: [vɐˈlʲerʲɪj ɐbʲɪˈsaləvʲɪdʑ ˈɡʲerɡʲɪjɪf]; Ossetian: Гергиты Абисалы фырт Валери, romanized: Gergity Abisaly fyrt Valeri; born 2 May 1953) is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is currently general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre and of the Bolshoi Theatre and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg. He was formerly chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and of the Munich Philharmonic.

6. Maria Yudina (1899 - 1970)

With an HPI of 56.16, Maria Yudina is the 6th most famous Russian Musician. Her biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Maria Veniaminovna Yudina (Russian: Мария Вениаминовна Юдина Mariya Veniaminovna Yudina; 9 September [O.S. 28 August] 1899 – 19 November 1970) was a Soviet pianist.

7. Lazar Berman (1930 - 2005)

With an HPI of 54.68, Lazar Berman is the 7th most famous Russian Musician. His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Lazar Naumovich Berman (Russian: Ла́зарь Нау́мович Бе́рман, Lazar Naumovich Berman; February 26, 1930 – February 6, 2005) was a Soviet Russian classical pianist, Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1988). He was hailed for a huge, thunderous technique that made him a thrilling interpreter of Liszt and Rachmaninoff and a late representative of the grand school of Russian Romantic pianism. Emil Gilels described him as a "phenomenon of the musical world."

8. Edgar Froese (1944 - 2015)

With an HPI of 54.58, Edgar Froese is the 8th most famous Russian Musician. His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.

Edgar Willmar Froese (German: [ˈɛtɡaʁ ˈfʁøːzə]; 6 June 1944 – 20 January 2015) was a German musical artist and electronic music pioneer, best known for founding the electronic music group Tangerine Dream in 1967. Froese was the only continuous member of the group until his death. His solo and group recordings prior to 2003 name him as "Edgar Froese", and his later solo albums bear the name "Edgar W. Froese".

9. Evgeny Kissin (b. 1971)

With an HPI of 54.34, Evgeny Kissin is the 9th most famous Russian Musician. His biography has been translated into 37 different languages.

Evgeny Igorevich Kissin (Russian: Евге́ний И́горевич Ки́син, romanized: Evgénij Ígorevič Kísin, Yiddish: יעווגעני קיסין, romanized: Yevgeni Kisin; born 10 October 1971) is a Russian-born concert pianist and composer. He became a British citizen in 2002 and an Israeli citizen in 2013. He first came to international fame as a child prodigy. He has a wide repertoire and is especially known for his interpretations of the works of the Romantic era, particularly those of Franz Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Modest Mussorgsky and Ludwig van Beethoven. He is commonly viewed as a great successor of the Russian piano school because of the depth, lyricism and poetic quality of his interpretations.

10. Maxim Shostakovich (b. 1938)

With an HPI of 54.28, Maxim Shostakovich is the 10th most famous Russian Musician. His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Maxim Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (Макси́м Дми́триевич Шостако́вич; born 10 May 1938 in Leningrad) is a Soviet, Russian and American conductor and pianist. He is the second child of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich and Nina Varzar. He is a recipient of an honorary title Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1978). Since 1975, he has conducted and popularised many of his father's lesser-known works. He was educated at the Moscow and Leningrad Conservatories, where he studied with Igor Markevitch and Otto-Werner Mueller before becoming principal conductor of the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. During his tenure as principal conductor, he conducted the premiere of his father's Fifteenth Symphony on 8 January 1972. On 12 April 1981, he defected to West Germany, and later settled in the United States. After spells conducting the New Orleans Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra he returned to St. Petersburg. In 1992, he made an acclaimed recording of the Myaskovsky Cello Concerto with Julian Lloyd Webber and the London Symphony Orchestra for Philips Classics. Shostakovich is the dedicatee and first performer of his father's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major (Op. 102). He has a son, Dmitri Maximovich Shostakovich (or Dmitri Shostakovich Jr.), who is a pianist. Maxim Shostakovich has recorded a cycle of his father's 15 symphonies with the Prague Symphony Orchestra for the Czech label Supraphon.

People

Pantheon has 55 people classified as Russian musicians born between 1832 and 1991. Of these 55, 33 (60.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Russian musicians include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Grigory Sokolov, and Valery Gergiev. The most famous deceased Russian musicians include Alexander Glazunov, Nikolai Rubinstein, and Maria Yudina. As of April 2024, 6 new Russian musicians have been added to Pantheon including Daniil Shafran, Valery Afanassiev, and Alexander Rosenbaum.