Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter, a renowned Russian pianist, was born on March 20, 1915 (according to the old style, March 7) in Zhytomyr, in present-day Ukraine. His father, Teofil Richter, was the son of a German colonist living in Russia, and his mother, Anna Moskaleva, came from a Russian noble family.

Richter spent his childhood and youth in Odessa, where he studied music under his father's guidance, who was a pianist and organist with a Viennese education. In 1941, his father was repressed as a German spy, and his mother was forced to emigrate to Germany.

From 1932 to 1937, Sviatoslav worked as a concertmaster at the Odessa Philharmonic and from 1934 at the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater. In 1934, he gave his first concert.

In 1937, at the age of 22, Richter entered the Moscow Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky, where he studied under Professor Heinrich Neuhaus. He graduated from the conservatory in 1947 with a gold medal.

On December 30, 1940, his performance of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto with the State Symphony Orchestra marked the beginning of his regular concert activity. In 1943, together with singer Nina Dorliak, who became his wife and stage partner, he went on his first tour of the USSR.

In 1945, Richter won the III All-Union Competition for Performing Musicians.

In 1950, he toured abroad for the first time, visiting Eastern European countries, and in 1960 and 1961, he performed in the USA, Canada, and Western European countries.

Richter's performances were characterized by technical mastery, an individual approach to the works, as well as a sense of timing and style.

His repertoire covered music from different eras, from Bach and Handel to Stravinsky, Britten, and Gershwin. He achieved the highest performing success in the works of Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, as well as Prokofiev, who dedicated his Ninth Sonata to him, and Shostakovich.

In 1980, Richter proposed to hold "December Evenings" at the A.S. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, annual festivals of painting and music. He also initiated the creation of the "Musical Festivals in Turen" (1964) and the music festival in Tarusa (since 1993), for which the Sviatoslav Richter Foundation was established.

In addition to music, Richter was passionate about visual arts and even created pastel works himself. His collection included works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Oscar Kokoschka, Renato Guttuso, Vasily Shukhaev, Robert Falk, Dmitry Krasnopevtsov, Anna Troyanovskaya, and others.

Richter's last public concert took place in March 1995 in Germany.

Sviatoslav Richter passed away on August 1, 1997, in Moscow and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.