Victoria Postnikova is a Soviet and Russian pianist, born on 12 January 1944 in Moscow. She began studying at the Central Music School at the age of six and gave her first public performance a year later, playing a Mozart concerto. After graduating from the school, she entered the Moscow Conservatory, where she studied in the class of Yakov Flier.
While still a student, Postnikova received an honorary mention from the jury at the Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1965. Three years later, after graduating from the conservatory, she won the Vianna da Motta Competition in Lisbon, sharing first prize with Farhad Badalbeyli. In 1970 she shared third place with Arthur Moreira Lima at the Fourth International Tchaikovsky Competition, beginning her international concert career.
Her broad repertoire ranges from Bach to Schnittke, although she is especially known for her interpretations of Romantic music. Her recordings include the complete piano works of Glinka, Tchaikovsky, and Janáček, as well as all the piano concertos by Chopin, Brahms, and Prokofiev. She frequently performed in a duo with her second husband, conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky, and with orchestras conducted by him.
Postnikova was named Honored Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1990 and People's Artist of the Russian Federation in 2004. In 2007, she received Portugal's Medal of Merit for Culture.