Michail Lifits is a German pianist who was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He enrolled in the University for Music and Drama in Hanover, Germany, where he studied piano with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Bernd Goetzke, then attended the International Piano Academy Incontri col Maestro in Imola, Italy, to study with Boris Petrushansky. He made his concert debut in Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 at age 13. He won prizes at the Hilton Head Piano Competition and the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition, and was a semi-finalist at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Lifits has played recitals in New York, Paris, London, Munich, Florence, and Zurich, and he frequently performs at international music festivals, including the BBC Proms, the Festival Mitte Europa, the Bergen International Festival, and many more. In 2011 Lifits signed a contract with Decca, for whom he has recorded albums of Mozart and Schubert. ~ Blair Sanderson