Young pianist - Valentina Lisitsa

Lisitsa was born in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1969. She started playing the piano at the age of three, performing her first solo recital at the age of four.^[3] Despite her early disposition to music, her dream at that point was to become a professional chess player.^[4] Lisitsa attended the Lysenko music school for Gifted Children and, later, Kiev Conservatory,^[5] where she and her future husband, Alexei Kuznetsoff, studied under Dr. Ludmilla Tsvierko.^[6] It was when Lisitsa met Kuznetsoff that she began to take music more seriously.^[7] In 1991 they won the first prize in The Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition.^[5][8] In the same year, they moved to the United States to further their careers as concert pianists. Their New York debut was at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center in 1995.^[6]

Lisitsa has performed in various venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and the Musikverein. Recently, she has been the pianist in recital engagements collaborating with violinist Hilary Hahn.^[5] Many of Lisitsa's performances, including Frédéric Chopin's Op. 10 and Op. 25 Etudes and Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata, can be viewed on YouTube.

Lisitsa has recorded 6 CDs (two solo CDs) for Audiofon Records (two are in duet with Alexei Kuznetsoff), a Gold CD for CiscoMusic label with cellist DeRosa, a duet recital on VAI label with violinist Ida Haendel, DVDs of Frédéric Chopin's 24 Etudes, Schubert-Liszt Schwanengesang, and her most recent DVD titled Black and Pink. Lisitsa recently collaborated with HORSE the band on their song, "Rape Escape", featured on their latest album, Desperate Living