Born in Moscow, Dmitri Alexeev (also spelled Alexeyev) began to play the piano from the age of five. At six he entered the Moscow Central Music School and later studied with Dmitri Bashkirov at the Moscow Conservatoire. Around 1970, Alexeev began to make the rounds of the competition circuit, winning awards at the 1969 Marguerite Long Concours in Paris, the 1970 Enescu Competition in Bucharest, and the 1974 Tchaikovsky Competition. His cycle of competition wins concluded in 1975 when he accorded unanimous top honors at the Leeds International Competition. This opened up a touring career that has led him to most of the important concert centers in the world. Although based in England, Alexeev often concertizes in Russia and he has recorded with frequency, mostly with EMI and Virgin, but also for RCA Victor, Hyperion, and with a number of Russian labels. In 2002, Alexeev gave the world premiere of the Penderecki Piano Concerto "Resurrection." Alexeev's daughter Anya Alexeyev is also a pianist and in 2002 gave the world premiere of Paul McCartney's piano piece A Leaf.