Mikhail Pletnev

Mikhail Vasilievich Pletnev (, "Mikha'il Vas'ilevič Plet'nëv"; born 14 April 1957) is a Russian pianist, conductor, and composer.
Life and career.
Pletnev was born into a musical family in Arkhangelsk, then part of the Soviet Union. His father played and taught the bayan, and his mother was a pianist. He studied with Kira Shashkina for six years at the Special Music School of the Kazan Conservatory, before entering the Moscow Central Music School at the age of 13, where he studied under Evgeny Timakin. In 1974, he entered the Moscow Conservatory, studying under Yakov Flier and Lev Vlassenko. At age 21, he won the Gold Medal at the VI International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1978, which earned him international recognition and drew great attention worldwide. The following year he made his debut in the United States. He also taught at the Moscow Conservatory. Pletnev has acknowledged Sergei Rachmaninoff as a particularly notable influence on him as a musician.
In 1988, Pletnev was invited to perform at the superpower conference in Washington, D.C., where he met and befriended Mikhail Gorbachev. From this friendship, he gained the support to found two years later the Russian National Orchestra in 1990, the first non-government-supported orchestra in Russia since 1917, and became its first principal conductor. He and the orchestra made their recording debut on Virgin Classics, releasing Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony and "Marche Slave" in 1991. He stepped down as Principal Conductor in the late 1990s, but remained the orchestra's artistic director. Mikhail Pletnev was principal guest conductor of the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland from 2008 to 2010.
Pletnev has made a number of recordings with Deutsche Grammophon. His recordings are mostly of Russian works, though in 2007 he recorded the complete Beethoven symphonies. The first works he recorded were for orchestra, including Tchaikovsky's "The Sleeping Beauty", his Sixth Symphony and "Manfred Symphony", and Rachmaninoff's Second and Third Symphonies. Pletnev's recording of Tchaikovsky's First Symphony (Winter Daydreams) received critical acclaim. His piano repertoire is extensive and includes "The Seasons", many Scarlatti sonatas, "Pictures at an Exhibition" as well as his own transcriptions of suites from "The Nutcracker" and "The Sleeping Beauty". With Pentatone, Pletnev has also recorded Russian works, such as all of Tchaikovsky's symphonies, Shostakovitch's symphonies no. 15 and 11, and Sergei Taneyev's "At the Reading of a Psalm".
In July 2010, Pletnev, a resident of Thailand, was arrested by Thai authorities in connection with allegations of child molestation. Pletnev, who was released on bail, denied the charges. He cancelled appearances at the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh International Festival in order to prepare his defense, but the charges were dropped on 28 September.