Valentina Lisitsa, piano

Described by critics as a "bona fide angel playing" and an "electrifying pianist", the Ukrainian-born Valentina Lisitsa has been receiving rave reviews since her arrival in the United States in 1991. With her multi-faceted playing described as "dazzling", Valentina is at ease in a vast repertoire ranging from Bach and Mozart to Shostakovich and Bernstein. With her highly individual and fearless approach to every work she performs, she has been greeted by enthusiastic audiences throughout the world.
Born to a family of non-musicians in Kiev, Ukraine, Ms. Lisitsa began playing the piano at the age of three and performed her first solo recital at age four. But unlike most music prodigies, Valentina did not think about a career as a concert pianist. She had a different dream - to become a professional chess player! With a minimum of practice time, she sailed through the Kiev Conservatory, winning competitions along the way, by relying on her extraordinary sight-reading abilities and photographic memory. Valentina attributes her effortless technique to hours of mindless repetition of the most difficult passages while simultaneously devouring a books that interested her, which she kept open on her music stand. This way, she explains, she was able to convince her family that she was practicing. It was only when she met Alexei Kuznetsoff, a fellow student at the Conservatory and her future partner in life as well as in duo-pianism, that Valentina started thinking about music seriously. Mr. Kuznetsoff, a very serious and knowledgeable musician, became the major influence on Valentina's transformation from dazzling virtuoso into extraordinary musician.
The first major enterprise undertaken by the young couple turned out to be not only a great success but a turning point in their lives. They decided to prepare for the most important two-piano competition in the world -"The Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition" in the United States. In one year of intense work they achieved something which ordinarily takes decades--becoming a seamless unity as a duo-piano team. Their "reward", in addition to winning first prize in the 1991 Competition, was an opportunity to move to the United States and launch a career as one of the most highly -esteemed piano duos in the country, beginning with their orchestral debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center in New York.
Although they didn't know it, the solo career of Ms. Lisitsa was about to take off as well, thanks to a bit of luck, if one can call it luck to find one unplayable piano at a scheduled two-piano recording session. Rather than calling the day off it was suggested that Valentina try recording some solo works. This impromptu recording session resulted in two more CDs - but this time solo CDs - and the launch of Valentina's highly successful solo career. Soon she was performing in the world's most prestigious concert venues, from New York's Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, to Vienna's Musikverein, to Amsterdam's Concertgebouw.
Having well over 30 concerti in her repertoire, she crisscrossed the globe performing with such orchestras as the Sao Paolo Symphony in Brazil, the New Zealand Philharmonic, and the Prague Chamber Orchestra.
Valentina is also frequently invited to participate in chamber music performances with such prominent musicians as the cellist Lynn Harrell, violinists Ida Haendel and Hilary Hahn. She has recorded eight CDs for the Audiofon Record Company, and her DVD of the 24 Chopin Etudes is the first in a series of her music videos. Two more DVDs-one of Schubert-Liszt songs and another of virtuoso masterpieces, including Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit and Liszt's Don Juan - were released in the fall of 2006.