Lazar Berman was born in Leningrad in 1930. He studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with Alexander Goldenweiser and has given concerts in the most important international music centres, such as the concert series at Carnegie Hall in New York. Berman has also worked with the greatest conductors (Bernstein, Karajan, Abbado, etc.) and orchestras (New York Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic, etc.) of his time. Since 1976, he has made some 30 recordings for major labels such as Deutsche Grammophon, CBS, EMI and Melodia, including the legendary recording of Tchaikovsky's first Piano Concerto under the conducted Herbert von Karajan in 1976. In 1977, Berman's recording of Liszt's Transcendental Etudes was awarded the Budapest Franz Liszt Prize. Until his death in 2005, Lazar Berman taught as a professor at the Musikhochschule Weimar and at the legendary Accademia Pianistica in Imola, Italy.