Yury Peshkov was born on 29th May 1940 in Leningrad. In 1946, he moved to the permanent residence in Riga (Latvia). He started his professional musical education since he was 16. In 1971, he graduated from the Lithuanian State Conservatory in Vilnius (Lithuania). He began his teaching career in 1961. Prior to the 90s he worked in the Jazeps Medins music school under the Latvian State Conservatory, heading the newly opened faculty of folk instruments. For a long period of time, he was the Chairman of the folk instruments section of the Methodics department of the Ministry of Culture of Latvia.
As a teacher, he raised numerous award winners of national and international music contests. His students work in many countries all around the globe – in Russia, Germany, Israel, etc.
He performs as a member of the jury on a regular basis, as well as the Chairman of various international accordionists’ competitions.
For a long time, he was a soloist of the various instrumental ensembles, and eventually led many of them. Since 1964, he worked as a soloist of the Belarusian State Philharmonic (Minsk), being a member of an instrumental ensemble led by V. Mulyavin. Until the 90s Yuri Peshkov was a soloist of the pop-concert association. Live performances were held in many countries and cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Germany, France, Hungary, etc.
The company "Ritonis-market" (former "Melody") released a CD with works of authorship that were enlisted in the gold fund of the All-Union Radio. Music by Yuri Peshkov was repeatedly on air on the Mayak radio station. In 1991, a publishing house called "Music" (Moscow) released a collection of works of Yuri Peshkov (compiled by Yuri Dranga). The plays also were published in various collections edited by M. Dvilyansky. Also, in 1991, the "Accordion Retro” collection of the works is published in Omsk. In 1993, a collection including works from the concert suite "Retro" was released in Lithuania. Also, a doctor of art criticism Professor Alfred Mirek included some of the works in his collections.
Today works by Yury Peshkov are played at various music forums and festivals in Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy and other countries. The play ‘Waltz-mazurka’ became a compulsory part of an international music contest n Denmark.
Great support for creative work of Yuri Peshkov has been shown by two professors of St. Petersburg University of Culture and Arts N. Kravtsov and V. Akulovich who arranged a series of radio programs in St. Petersburg.
In 2007, the organization committee of the international contest festival "Accoholiday" (Moscow) awarded a gold medal to the author for outstanding achievements and significant contribution to the development of modern accordion performing art. In 2008, Yuri Peshkov received the honorable title of "Living legend" and the "Legenda Viva" Order, as well as the honorable title of Vice-President of the Higher League masters of the world accordion (Latvia).
