Pianist Alexey Botvinov specializes in Bach and Rachmaninov, performs in ballet productions, and pursues novel ways of presenting classical music involving fusions of music with theater, dance, and even light shows. He is also the founder and artistic director of the Odessa Classics festival. A breakthrough performance for Botvinov came in 1993 when he played the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23, at the season-opening concert of the Tonhalle in Zürich, Switzerland, with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra under conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev. Botvinov began a long collaboration with choreographer Heinz Spoerli, appearing in more than 20 of Spoerli's ballet productions. In 2021, he backed violinist Daniel Hope on the album Schnittke: Works for violin and piano and the EP Music for Ukraine the following year.