Osip Nikiforov is a Siberian concert pianist, who studied under the tutelage of the world-renowned pianists－ Alexander Braginsky, Yefim Bronfman, and Jon Kimura Parker. He is also a Third Prize winner of 2016 San Antonio International Piano Competition.

Born in the city of Abakan in Siberia to a family of musicians, Osip started studying piano with his father at age 6. While still living in Russia, Osip has participated and won numerous awards in national and international competitions, such as the Gold Medal at the Delphic Games in Astana, Kazakhstan, and Third Prize at the 1st International e-Piano Junior Competition in Minnesota, where at the age of fourteen he shared the prize with Jan Lisiecki. A year later, he was the winner of Dorothy McKenzie Award in New York City at the International Keyboard Institute and Festival Competition. At just 14 years of age, Osip performed Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Minnesota Orchestra.

Since 2010 Osip Nikiforov has been residing in the United States. In 2024, he recorded a series of folk tale inspired piano pieces for children by the Ukrainian composer Aida Isakova, which was broadcast nationally on Minnesota Public Radio and is now available online as part of the “Folk Classics from Across the Globe” radio special. In 2023 Dr. Nikiforov performed a series of all-Rachmaninoff solo programs in Texas and Minnesota, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the composer. In 2020 he was awarded First Prize at San Antonio Young Artist Tuesday Musical Competition. Osip is regularly invited to perform at concert series as well as festivals, including the Minnesota Orchestra Summer Festival in Minneapolis, the Schubert Club Courtroom Concert Series in St. Paul, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, the Memorial Classical Music Series in Houston, and the Mozart Festival Texas in San Antonio. Besides the United States, he has given solo recitals in Spain, Israel, South Africa, Russia, and Japan. Osip has also frequently collaborated with national and international orchestras, including the St. Petersburg State Academic Capella Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Khakass Philharmonic Orchestra, the Incarnate Word Symphony Orchestra, and the Mississippi Valley Symphony Orchestra. In 2016 he became a recipient of the Adopt a Young Artist award, given to a young classical musician in Minnesota. He is also the Second Prize winner of 2014 Music Teacher National Association Competition in Young Artist Division in Chicago.

Osip Nikiforov is a graduate of University of Minnesota, BM ’17; Manhattan School of Music, MM ’19; and Rice University, DMA ’23. He has also appeared on Minnesota Public Radio, Performance Today by YourClassical, WFMT Radio, GetClassical, Classical Connect, Star Tribune, Austin Daily Herald, and Houston Press. In Fall 2021 Osip’s first piano solo album “Russian Elegie” was released by Orpheus Classical on all major digital platforms. Besides performing, Osip also enjoys making his own transcriptions for piano as well as playing solo jazz piano. Currently, Osip Nikiforov is based in the Twin Cities.