Nikolai Lugansky is one of Russia's major pianists, especially known for his performances of Romantic music. He has won several of Russia's major national music awards. In 1994, Lugansky was the top finisher at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, taking a silver medal (no gold was awarded). That year, he made his recording debut with an album of Rachmaninov's Études-Tableaux. Lugansky has appeared as a concerto soloist with major orchestras in both Russia and the West and is an enthusiastic chamber music player. He recorded several albums of Beethoven in the early 2020s, and in 2024, he issued an album of transcriptions of passages from Wagner's operas on that label. Lugansky is on the piano faculty at the Moscow Conservatory.