Dmitriy Cogan was born in Moscow in 1963 and began music studies at the age of six at the Central Music School there. In 1974 he moved with his family to the United States and settled in San Francisco. He studied conducting at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and continued his piano studies with Vladimir Pleshakov and Maria Cysic. In 1979 he moved to New York to study with Martin Canin at the Julliard School of Music, where he received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees. He has performed publicly since the age of nine in Moscow and made his American début in 1975. In 1976, he won the Junior Bach Festival in Berkeley. Since 1980 he has appeared in numerous solo and chamber music concerts in the New York area, winning competitions in New York, Cincinnati and Cleveland and in 1990 the Jose Iturbi International Piano Competition in Valencia, Spain. He toured Russia in 1993, giving an acclaimed series of concerts in Moscow and other cities. Since 1985 he has performed throughout North America and Asia with violinist Alexander Markov.