Nikolai Kapustin
Pianist & ComposerNikolai Kapustin is an autodidact on composing; he made his first attempt to compose a piano sonata at age of 13. During his conservatory time he composed and played his Op. 1; a Concertino for piano and orchestra. The Op.1 was a jazz piece and turned out to be his first work performed publicly in 1957.
Kikolai Kapustin
Born in the Ukraine in 1937, Nikolai Kapustin was a child piano prodigy who graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with a degree in classical piano performance. However, during his studies he became fascinated by jazz, learned to improvise, and joined a jazz band upon graduation. Being both a classical and jazz pianist allowed Kapustin to survive the persecution of jazz musicians by the Stalinist state and subsequent regimes. Eventually tiring of performance, Kapustin switched from improvisation to composition, an activity he has continued in prolific measure to this day. With his dual perspective on classical and jazz music, Kapustin has blended both forms to produce fully notated virtuosic jazz pieces that give classical pianists who are new to improvisational jazz an understanding of some of the characteristics of the genre.
