Mikhail Yurievich Aptekman, or simply Misha Aptekman. The name of this brilliant concertmaster and virtuoso pianist had warmed the hearts of romance fans for more than three decades, and, no doubt, will make his mark in the history of Russian stage music. Grateful listeners will forever remember his versatile talents - the talent of a musician, pianist, arranger, improviser and teacher.

There are a great number of artistic memories bound to the name Mikhail Aptekman, or, to be exact, to the inimitable art and professional skill of this brilliant pianist. And, all of his partners, whether they be eminent musicians or beginners, many of whom were brought to the concert stage by Mikhail Aptekman, all bless their stars for their luck to have met him. And, without forgetting his strict insistence on high standards, they fondly remember his reliability while performing together with him on one stage, his ability to 'play around' any surprise while performing (and not only as a musician, but also as an artist), and his wonderful solo, impromptu and jams that helped on more than one occasion when the words were forgotten.

To perform together with Mikhail Aptekman was an honour for the great masters of the field, such as Galina Kareva and Irina Otieva, Tamara Gverdtseteli and Nani Bregvadze, Alla Bayanova and Nikolai Slichenko, Lyudmila Senchina and Valentina Tolkunova, Eduard Khil and Valentin Baglaenko, Vitaly Psarev and Victor Kivonos. In the last years Mikhail Aptekman worked a lot with Petersburg vocalists Larisa Lusta, Elena Zabrodina, Mikhail Lukonin, Victoria Pankratova, Vladimir Samsonov, Eugenia Dyatlova, Vitaliy Korotaev, Olga Piterish, Alexander Retyunsky, Ivan Besedin, Galina Sidorenko, Maria Lyudko, Elena Vasilieva, Sofia Gelovani and many others.

Mikhail Aptekman was always highly appreciated by the leading composers of Russia, starting with V.P. Soloviev-Sedoy, with the concerts of whom the young pianist began and travelled through over half of the country, and M.G. Fradkin, whose works Aptekman held in high esteem. V.A. Uspensky loved and appreciated M. Aptekman and wrote a number of works for the piano with orchestra especially for him. And, A.P. Petrov always considered M. Aptekman to be a genius pianist and concertmaster, and especially noted his harmonic feel and ability to work the piano side of a song or romantic accompaniment with great virtuosity.

Mikhail Aptekman always knew his true value, yet talked of himself as of a 'journalistic accompanist and highly skilled hired worker'. Of course, this was not the case. Mikhail Aptekman was a direct successor of such famous celebrities as Alexander Tsfasman, Boris Mandrus, David Ashkenazi, Simon Kogan and Oleg Boshnyakovich, but not only did he bring the art of accompaniment to perfection, he also completed the epoch of Soviet and Post-Soviet (at least, pre-synthesizer) stage music piano performance.

His untimely death in October 2008 was a true loss for all of Russian stage music, but especially for Saint Petersburg, where Mikhail Aptekman was, without exaggeration, the epitome of stage music itself.