Igor Levit's website identifies him as "Citizen, European, Pianist," and in that order. The New York Times has called him “one of the essential artists of his generation,” and while a few other pianists of his generation have had more mass-market fame than Levit, Alex Ross writes in The New Yorker, "none have comparable stature as a cultural or . . . a political figure."

He talks with 55 Voices for Democracy hosts Tom Zoellner and Aida Baghernejad about his music and his activism.