Nina Kogan was born into a family of two legendary violinists, Leonid Kogan and Elizaveta Gilels, the sister of the great pianist Emil Gilels.
She started studying the piano at the age of six, then attended the Central Music School for Gifted Children. Later she graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, receiving a D.M.A. with honors in the class of professor Yakov Flier.
Nina Kogan is a top prize winner of the M.Long Piano Competition in Paris.
She began concertizing at the age of 12. At 13 she started performing with her father, Leonid Kogan. Theirs grew into a unique collaboration that lasted almost 16 years until his untimely death in 1982. During these years she was the only pianist he ever performed with arround the world.Nina Kogan appeared with a many prominent orchestras including the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, USSR State Radio & TV Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Korean Symphony Orhestra, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra; Macedonian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Zagreb Philharmonic; performs as a soloist, plays a vast variety of chamber music and gives master classes all over the world.
She collaborated with such famous musicians as Andre Navarra, Alexander Rudin, Alexander Knyazev, Grigory Zhislin, Schostakovich Quartet among others.Nina Kogan has recorded for Melodiya, Triton, Philips, Chant du Monde, Brilliant Classics, Orfeo, Kultur, etc.
1991-1992 and 2003-2004 she was Professor of the Connecticut College in New London, USA
From 1997 Nina Kogan is Professor of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
She was awarded as Honored Artist of Russia. Nina Kogan is also a public fugure – she is a President of the International Musical Foundation.