For Brooklyn College music student Nikita Tumanov, meeting his idol Mikhail Voskresensky seemed like a far off idea.

But when Tumanov reached out to him, he agreed to teach a master class at Brooklyn College.

Voskresensky was the former head of the Moscow Conservatory. But when Russia invaded Ukraine, that changed.

“I felt that I must do something, I must fight. But how can I fight? I only play piano," said Voskresensky.

Voskresensky left and came to America.

Tumanov, a half-Ukrainian, half-Russian music student, looks up to him in more ways than one.

“My family was suffering a lot from the war and the circumstances, and I think he is just a hero for what he did. I think everyone praises and wishes they could do what he did, such a big step - and he actually did it," said Tumanov.