Anatoly Zatin studied at the Rimsky-Kórsakov Conservatory of Leningrad, earning a Doctorate in Composition (1983) and Master’s degrees in Piano and Orchestral Conducting. He was a student of Sergei Slonimsky, Ravil Martynov, Ilya Musin, Evgeny Mravinsky, Yuri Ananyev, Pavel Serebriakov, and Abraham Logovinsky. At the age of 24, he joined the Union of Composers of the USSR, and at 28, he made his debut as a conductor with the Leningrad Philharmonic.
One of the great heirs of the pianistic tradition of Nathan Perelman, from the distinguished lineage of Leonid Nikolayev. Dr. Kovalsky was born in Khabárovsk, in the Far East of Russia. He graduated from the renowned Rimsky-Kórsakov State Conservatory of Music in Leningrad, where he studied under the guidance of Nathan Perelman, one of the legendary Russian pianists and pedagogues revered for his musical mastery and refined pianism — teacher of María Yudina, Vladimir Sofronitsky, and Dmitri Shostakovich, all celebrated artists and fellow disciples of the same lineage.
