Grigory Lipmanovich Sokolov (born April 18, 1950) is a Russian pianist, also a Spanish citizen since 2022, who began piano at age five and entered the Leningrad Conservatory’s children’s school at seven under Leah Zelikhman, later studying with Moisey Khalfin. At 16 he won the gold medal at the 1966 International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition, becoming its youngest-ever winner. He toured the United States repeatedly in the late 1960s and 1970s before expanding his international career from the late 1980s onward, and signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 2014. He performs an unusually wide repertoire spanning Baroque composers such as Bach and Rameau through 20th-century figures like Schoenberg.

Sokolov is widely regarded as among the greatest living pianists, admired for interpretive depth and technical precision, though he largely avoided the American concert circuit for decades, focusing instead on an intensive European touring schedule.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Sokolov