Sergey Nikitin

Sergey Yakovlevich Nikitin (born 8 March 1944) is a prominent Soviet and Russian bard, composer, and biophysicist. He performs both solo and in a duet with his wife, Tatyana Nikitina all over Russia, the former Soviet republics, and other countries with significant Russian-speaking diaspora. Nikitin is also known as a composer and performer of songs for children. Sergey Nikitin graduated from the Physics Department of Moscow State University in 1968. After completing postgraduate studies at the department of Biophysics at Moscow State University, he worked as a researcher in Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry in Moscow (1971–1980). In 1980–1987 he was a researcher at the Institute of Biophysics in Pushchino and received a PhD in Physics in 1983.

Nikitin wrote music to his first song, En route (lyrics by Iosif Utkin), in 1962. In 1963, he founded an all-male quartet in the Department of Physics at Moscow State University, together with Sergey Smirnov, Boris Geller, Aleksei Monakhov, and later Vadim Khait.

From 1968 to 1977, he appeared at numerous concerts, together with other members of his quintet, including his wife, Tatyana Nikitina, Carmen Santacreu, Vladimir Ulin, and Nikolai Turkin. In 1987–1995, he was Musical Director at the Oleg Tabakov Studio-Theater in Moscow, and became a full-time singer and composer since 1995.

Sergei and his wife Tatyana are very close friends of Grigory Luchansky and, beginning in 2002, the three of them provided funding to improve the Smolensk Special School for the Blind and Visually Impaired Children (‹See Tfd›Russian: Смоленская специальная школа для слепых и слабовидящих детей)

The waltz by Nikitin "Aleksandra" is similar to the famous Loca de Amor by Rodolfo Biagi.