 He regularly tours Europe (excluding the UK), and resides in Italy.Sokolov was born in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, to Russian Jewish father Lipman Girshevich Sokolov and Russian mother Galina Nikolayevna Zelenetskaya.He began studying the piano at the age of five and entered the Leningrad Conservatory's special school for children at the age of seven to study with Leah Zelikhman.