Stravinsky achieved international fame by composing the scores to three ballets commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes: The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. The Rite's 1913 premiere in Paris famously provoked a full scale riot for what was then considered to be its shockingly modern score. In the 1920s, Stravinsky went through a neoclassical phase, but by the 1950s, he had become affiliated with serialism.

In addition to composing, Stravinsky was also a pianist, conductor and author. He published a number of books throughout his career including an autobiography in 1936.

Stravinsky was born in Oranienbaum (Lomonosov), Russia in 1882. Over the course of his life, he would live in Switzerland, France and eventually the United States. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1945. He lived in both Los Angeles and New York and was close with a circle of Russian intellectual emigrés including George Balanchine, Otto Klemperer and Arthur Rubenstein.

Stravinsky died in New York City in 1971. He was posthumously honored with the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1987.