Igor Golovschin was born in Moscow in 1956 and studied under the legendary Kyril Kondrashin at the Moscow Conservatory. He won the world's major conducting competition, the Herbert von Karajan Competition, in 1982, and in 1988 became the assistant to Yevgeny Svetlanov at the USSR State Symphony Orchestra. He has since toured extensively with the orchestra. 　　For Naxos he has recorded the complete symphonies of Scriabin, and Balakirev symphonies. In awarding the Balakirev symphonies the maximum five stars, Classic CD critic wrote: “There are other versions of these works, but none finer than these and certainly none offering better value.”