Portrait of Rachmaninoff, circa 1921. Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff (April 1873 - March 28, 1943) was a Russian-born composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music. Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and other Russian composers gave way to a thoroughly personal idiom that included a pronounced lyricism, expressive breadth, structural ingenuity, and a tonal palette of rich, distinctive orchestral colors. The piano is featured prominently in his compositional output. He made a point of using his own skills as a performer to explore fully the expressive possibilities of the instrument. He was famed for possessing a clean and virtuosic piano technique. His playing was marked by precision, rhythmic drive, notable use of staccato and the ability to maintain clarity when playing works with complex textures. He died of melanoma in 1943, just four days before his 70th birthday. A choir sang his All Night Vigil at his funeral.