Born 1956 in Moscow, Russia, Nikita Koshkin started studying the guitar in 1970 under the guidance of Vladimir Kapkaev. His following guitar teachers were George Emanov at the Alfred Schnittke College, and Alexander Frauchi at the Russian Academy of Music where he has been the first student at the opening of the guitar class in 1980. His conducting classes were done with Viktor Podurovsky and Vyacheslav Chistyakov, while studying composition with Viktor Egorov, Henrich Litinsky, Nikolai Peiko, and Chernov. He won the 1987 International Guitar Composition Competition in Estergom, Hungary. Koshkin's career began as a composer. It was after Vladimir Mikulka gave the world premieres of his works The Fall of Birds (London, 1978) and Prince's Toys (Paris, 1980). The success of these performances put Koshkin's name among those of the most important contemporary guitar composers. As a guitarist, after his debut concert at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in 1989 - where he played an entire program of his own music - he started touring all over the world. In 2000, he was invited to perform a solo recital at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway. He recorded two CDs for the label Soundset Recordings (USA) and one for Kreuzberg Records (Germany). He is regularly invited to international guitar festivals as a teacher as well as a judge in international guitar competitions. In 1999 and in 2000 in Rust (Austria), was held an event under his name, the Nikita Koshkin International Guitar Competition. Koshkin's music is in the repertoire of many well-known guitarists like John Williams, Vladimir Mikulka, Elena Papandreou, Stein Erik Olsen, Ricardo Cobo, Simon Dinnigan, Assad Duo, Eden-Stell Duo, Zagreb Trio. In 1996, in the city of Negotin (Serbia), Koshkin was awarded the Golden Medal and the Stevan Mokranyac Prize for his contribution to the music of the orthodox countries. He also received a Special Diploma from the city of Novy Sad. Koshkin teaches guitar at the Moscow State Classical Academy and hosts the radio program The Guitar is my Island.