Guest Artist Bio
Valentina Lisitsa
Debuting with the Oregon Symphony in September 2006, pianist Valentina Lisitsa made a last minute appearance last March to rave reviews after replacing Denis Matsuev on Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. This season marks her third appearance with the Oregon Symphony.
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,” Lisitsa is at ease in a vast repertoire ranging from Bach and Mozart to Shostakovich and Bernstein.
A graduate of the famed Kiev Conservatory, she has won numerous international prizes, such as the Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition, Concertino Prague, The Lysenko Piano Competition and The Paris Chamber Music Competition. Since making her New York debut in 1995 at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, she has maintained an active international schedule in recital and with orchestras, including a U.S. tour with the Orchestre National de France and a 30-performance tour with the Prague Chamber Orchestra.
Lisitsa is a frequent guest artist of numerous orchestras and festivals including the Indianapolis Symphony and Chicago’s Grant Park Festival where she has appeared seven years in a row performing concerti by Mozart, Rachmaninoff, MacDowell, Bernstein and Beethoven.
Her career highlights include performances of all the Rachmaninoff concerti with numerous U.S. and European orchestras, a 29 city recital tour (solo and duo with her husband, Alexei Kuznetsoff) in the U.S., a performance of Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and the world premiere of Schubert-Liszt's Schwanengesang at the Los Angeles County Museum of the Art, which was broadcasted live.
Recent engagements have included a tour with the Talich String Quartet, a month-long tour with the Russian Symphony Orchestra in the United States and Mexico, recitals and an orchestra tour in Italy, a European tour with the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra and solo and chamber music recitals in Milan, Vienna, Amsterdam, London, Glasgow, San Diego, Miami, New York and Chicago.
Highlights from past seasons include performances with the Atlanta Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, West Virginia Symphony, and Orquestra de Sao Paulo. She also performed at concerts in New Zealand, Mexico, Knoxville, Las Vegas, Miami, Pensacola and at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. In the 2007-2008 season, Lisitsa will join Hilary Hahn in extensive tours throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Lisitsa has recorded eight CDs for Audiofon and 3 DVDs. In addition to
her extensive discography, Lisitsa has also recorded a television program “Valentina
in Miami,” a one hour music special produced and presented by PBS.
Recently, Lisitsa was featured in a segment of the CBS News program “Sunday
Morning.”