Polina Nazaykinskaya was born in Togliatti, Russia on January 20, 1987. She has been studying music professionally since the age of 4. She graduated with Honors from the Music Academic Gymnasium in Togliatti (Performance program in violin and flute) in 2004. In 2008 she graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory Music College as a violinist and composer. Currently she is a graduate student at the Yale School of Music (Composition Major). She is now studying Composition with Ezra Laderman, Christopher Theofanidis and violin with Kyung Hak Yu.

Polina has participated in numerous regional and international performance and composers competitions. She has also been awarded the Spivakov Foundation stipend for outstanding young musicians.

In 2003 Polina received the First Prize for the best violin performance with a symphony orchestra in the regional Lagovskaya competition in Samara region, Russia. In 2006 she and her music partner became winners of the Dmitriy Shostakovich chamber music competition.

For the last few years Polina has focused primarily on composition. She is the winner of several composers competitions such as the Dmitriy Kabalevskiy Competition and the International Composers Competition named after Vyacheslav Zolotarev. Her music had been performed in number music festivals such as "Music Academy of the West" (USA), Classic music festival on the Volga River (Russia) "Cadiza Festival" (Spain) and throughout Europe.

In 2008 Polina was included in the "Golden Book of the Samara Region" as an outstanding violinist and composer.

In 2009 Polina was among the finalists of ASCAP young composer`s competition and Missouri New Music Festival.

At the same year Polina participated as a composer in New Music Workshop at Norfolk Chamber Music Festival where she had a premiere of the new cycle of songs.

For the last year Polina`s music had been performed at music festivals such as New Music New Haven, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.

During 2008-2009 academic year she has been teaching private lessons in composition and violin.
During her first year at Yale she completed two successful projects for children in Music in Schools Initiative program.

Also Polina has an experience in composing music for films.