Isaac Iosifovich Mikhnovsky[a] (17 April 1914 – 18 February 1978) was a prominent Soviet pianist, composer, professor, and winner of the First All-Soviet Piano Competition.

His name became widely known in Soviet Russia, and already in the spring of 1938, he performed concertos by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Beethoven in the exclusive Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, to rave reviews from the critics.

In 1939, as a member of a group of young Soviet musicians that also included Emil Gilels, Yakov Flier, Pavel Serebryakov, Isaak Mikhnovsky participated in the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels.

He gave solo recitals and made concerto appearances in the largest Soviet cities, often performing with conductors such as Yevgeny Mravinsky, Kurt Sanderling, Nikolai Rabinovich, and Natan Rakhlin.

[1] In 1946–1948, Mikhnovsky created a series of piano transcriptions of romances by Russian composers, and fantasies based on operas by Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Rubinstein, Dargomyzhsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov.

Prominent musicians such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Dmitry Kabalevsky, Lev Oborin, Reinhold Glière, and others enthusiastically endorsed these compositions.

During his career Isaak Mikhnovski met and worked with many leading musicians of his time, in particular, he developed a very close professional and personal relationship with Mstislav Rostropovich.