Yury Martynov is among the strikingly few contemporary pianists whose careers encompass both the full range of the modern instrument and consummate mastery of harpsichord, historical piano, clavichord, and organ. Following youthful studies at the Moscow Conservatory's Central Music School, he graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, having studied piano with Mikhail Voskresensky, organ with Alexey Parshin, and ensemble performance with Tigran Alikhanov. He later studied harpsichord and basso continuo at the Paris Conservatoire Municipal with Iltun Wjuniski. Competition wins in several lands, tours on most of the continents, and return invitations to festivals worldwide have established his reputation as a deeply nuanced musician who continues the finest historical and contemporary performance traditions of his land.

Yury Martynov, presently teaching at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, has a dual associate professorship in modern piano and historical keyboard performance. He counts among Europe's busiest performers on stage, solo and collaboratively, and has recorded for the continent's most acclaimed labels, among which are Melodiya, Alpha, and Caromitis. His world première recording of Liszt's transcriptions of all the Beethoven symphonies on superb mid-19th-century concert grands has garnered prize after prize, and his Mozart two-piano album with colleague Alexei Lubimov, also on period pianos, has become a standard against which other performances are measured.