Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge (his French ancestors' last name was de Gay), Russian: Николай Николаевич Ге; 27 February [O.S. 15 February] 1831 – 13 June [O.S. 1 June] 1894) was a Russian realist painter famous for his works on historical and religious motifs.

Nikolai Ge was born in Voronezh to a Russian noble family of French origin. His grandfather emigrated to Russia in the 18th century. His parents died when he was still a child, so Nikolai was raised by his serf nurse. He graduated from the First Kiev Gymnasium and studied at the physics-mathematics department of Kiev University and Saint Petersburg University.

In 1850 he gave up his career in science and entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. He studied in academy under the historical painter Pyotr Basin until 1857. He graduated from the academy in 1857 with a gold medal for his painting The Witch of Endor Calling Up the Spirit of the Prophet Samuel. According to Ge himself, during that period he was strongly influenced by Karl Briullov.

Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin (12 November 1833 – 27 February 1887) was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five (or "The Mighty Handful"), who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music. He is best known for his symphonies, his two string quartets, and his opera Prince Igor. Music from Prince Igor and his string quartets was later adapted for the US musical Kismet.

Borodin was born in Saint Petersburg, the illegitimate son of a Georgian noble, Luka Gedevanishvili (Georgian: ლუკა სიმონის ძე გედევანიშვილი) and a 24-year-old Russian woman, Evdokia Konstantinovna Antonova (Евдокия Константиновна Антонова). The nobleman had him registered as the son of one of his serfs, Porfiry Borodin. As a boy he received a good education, including piano lessons. He entered the Medico–Surgical Academy in 1850, which was later home to Ivan Pavlov, and pursued a career in chemistry. On graduation he spent a year as surgeon in a military hospital, followed by three years of advanced scientific study in western Europe.

Sofia Mykhailivna Yevdokymenko-Rotaru (born August 7, 1947) known as Sofia Rotaru (Ukrainian: Софiя Ротару [sɔˈfijɑ rɔˈtɑru]) is a Soviet and Ukrainian pop singer of Romanian/Moldavian heritage.

Born to a large, impoverished family in Marshintsy, Rotaru, nicknamed Bukovinsky Solovey (Nightingale from Bukovina), emerged in 1966 as a pop folk star in the movie Solovey iz sela Marshintsy (Nightingale from Marshintsy) in the Romanian and Ukrainian-speaking world after her manager and future husband Anatoliy Jevdokymenko made her change her music style from folk to pop music with Chervona Ruta.

In 1972, Sofia released the multilingual album Sofia Rotaru, re-released three times and covered by numerous singers, establishing herself as a viable pop artist in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Rotaru had first gained international recognition after participating in 1968 in the International Youth Song Festival in Bulgaria and winning first prize at the Golden Orpheus in 1973 and second prize in the category of Polish songs at the Sopot International Song Festival in 1974. In the former USSR her career was marked by her stage success and numerous controversies. Rotaru is recognised by the Kiev Patriarchate. Xenia Minosyan has named her a Ukrainian Show Queen and the edition of Postimees in Russian has called her a queen of pop music., Lithuanian "Litovskii Kurier"^{[dead link]} Ukrainian news portal "openbiz", newspapers - Russian "Vechernaya Moskva", United Arab Emirates' "The National" call her "Queen of Pop".^{[dead link][dead link][dead link][dubious – discuss]}

Nikolay Victorovich Baskov PAR (Russian: Николай Викторович Басков, 15 October 1976, in Balashikha moscow, Russian SFSR) is a popular Russian tenor singer. He's famous for performing both classical operatic arias and pop music songs.

He is meritorious (2001) and people's (2009) artist of the Russian Federation. He is people's artist of Ukraine. He is also known for participating on the Russian television intellectual game show What? Where? When? as a member of Mikhail Barshchevsky's team.

Nikolay Baskov studied at Gnessin music academy in Moscow, and became an aspirant of Moscow State Petr Chaykovsky Conservatory. In 1998 Baskov won the first prize in the All-Russian Young Singers Competition and second prize in the Grande Voce competition 1999 in Spain.

The same year Nikolay Baskov was invited to the Bolshoi theatre troupe. He performed the major arias in such operas as Yevgeni Onegin, Prince Igor, Boris Godunov, Traviata and others.

In 2000 he recorded his debut solo album «Posveshenie» (Dedication). The video filmed for «In Memory of Caruso» (based on Adagio in G minor) was aired on Russian TV and increased his popularity. Since 2001, Baskov abandoned the Bolshoi to run his commercially successful solo career. Though Baskov's repertoire consists mostly of modern -arrangements of arias and romances, he performs pop music as well. Nikolay has often performed with pop artists, as well as with classical singers, such as Montserrat Caballé. From July 2009 to March 2011, he dated Oksana Fedorova, the former Miss Universe.

Dilermando Reis (born Dilermando dos Santos Reis on September 22, 1916 - January 2, 1977) was a Brazilian musician, composer, acoustic guitarist and music teacher. He once had Juscelino Kubitschek, the former Brazilian president, as a student.