Mikhail Petukhov's first concert appearances, at the age of 10, often included his own compositions. Further studies at the Kiev Special Music School (with Nina Naiditch and Valentin Kutcherov) led to his victory at the Leipzig 4th International Bach Piano Competition. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, which largely shaped his development as a pianist and a composer. It was there that he studied with the Tatiana Nikolayeva and met such personalities as Dmitri Schostakovitch, Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels.

After winning 7th prize at the 1975 Queen Elisabeth Competition, Mikhail Petukhov received numerous invitations to perform in Europe, Japan and the U.S. It is only 13 years later, however, that he could start to travel outside of the Soviet Union. At present he performs in Russia and internationally, in such concert halls as the Berlin Philharmonic, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Bolshoi Theatre and Great Hall in Moscow, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Philadelphia Music Academy, Milan Verdi Conservatoire, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Usher Hall in Edinburgh, Geneve Conservatoire, Palais de Beaux-Arts Brussels, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Palau de la Musica in Valencia, Budapest Liszt Music Academy, Philharmonic Hall in Hong Kong, Prague Opera, Gasteig in Munich and Herodus Atticum in Athens.

Mikhail Petukhov has appeared as a soloist with Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, Yuri Bashmet, Valeri Gergiev, Milan Horvat, Karl Eliasberg, Yuri Simonov, Michel Tabachnick, Vladimir Fedosseyev, Mark Ermler and Saulius Sondeckis, among others. He has performed with such orchestras as the Birmingham Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, Royal Scottish Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Bolshoi Theatre Symphony, Belgium National Orchestra, Zagreb Philharmonic, Bornmouth Symphony, Hungarian State Symphony, Santiago Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester.

Mikhail Petukhov has released numerous CDs for Pavane (Belgium), MonoPoly (South Korea), Sonora (USA), Opus (Slovakia), Great Hall (Russia), Pro Domino (Switzerland), Melopea (Argentina) and Consonance (France). Among those are such prestigious live recordings as Tchaikovsky’s First and Second Piano Concertos at Teatro Colon and Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto at the Bolshoi Theatre, as well as the CD Petukhov plays Petukhov. He composed many works, including the opera The Bride from Messina, on a text by Schiller, and a Sonata for Violin Solo, highly acclaimed by David Oistrakh.

Mikhail Petukhov is a professor at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. His master classes are much in demand throughout the world (Russia, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Argentina, Brazil, South Korea, the USA etc). He has been awarded with the title of Honoured Artist of Russia by the Russian government.