Lev Oborin studied piano under Konstantin Igumnov at the Moscow Conservatory from 1921 to 1926. He continued his training in Igumnov's class as a postgraduate student in 1927.
Igumnov showed Oborin the program for the First International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw three weeks before it began, when Oborin had about one-third of the required works in his repertoire. Igumnov and Boris Yavorsky urged him to prepare, and Oborin won first prize in 1927.
