Valentina Lisitsa

Valentina Lisitsa is not only the first "YouTube star" of classical music, but above all, the first classical artist to successfully translate her internet success into a worldwide concert career on prestigious stages in Europe, the USA, South America, and Asia. Born in Ukraine, she initially trained at the Lysenko Music School for gifted children and later at the Music Conservatory in her hometown of Kyiv. However, Valentina Lisitsa always looked beyond the confines of the music world; at one point, she even dreamed of a career as a professional chess player. In 1992, she emigrated to the USA, where she attempted to launch her career as a piano duo artist with her husband. Several competition wins and resulting concert engagements marked the beginnings of her journey. Yet, her career did not significantly advance for a long time, prompting Valentina Lisitsa to seek new ways to attract an audience. Here, she demonstrated her extraordinary intuition for new developments and her openness to unconventional paths. In 2007, she uploaded her first video to the internet platform YouTube, a recording of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Etude op. 39 No. 6. In an interview with a radio journalist, she said: "My first YouTube clip was of poor VHS quality with a terrible school piano, and my hands weren't synchronized with the sound. But people connected with it. Suddenly, they told me that my interpretations mattered, that they made a difference, that they were recognized." The click numbers quickly increased, and more videos followed. The foundation of a career unprecedented in classical music within a social network was laid. Today, her YouTube channel boasts nearly 70 million clicks and 130,000 subscribers. In May 2010, Valentina Lisitsa performed the Dutch premiere of the newly arranged "Piano Concerto No. 5" (based on the 2nd Symphony) by Sergei Rachmaninoff with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. In August 2011, she performed for the first time with the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira under the direction of Lorin Maazel. She has also performed with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Seoul Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, and Pittsburgh Symphony. In doing so, she has collaborated with conductors such as Manfred Honeck, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Jukka-Pekka Saraste. A spectacular recital at London's Royal Albert Hall before 8,000 listeners in June 2012 finally marked her international breakthrough. The audience could vote online beforehand on the evening's program – a way of involving listeners in the concert event that has become a kind of "trademark" for Valentina Lisitsa. The renowned label DECCA signed Lisitsa as an exclusive artist and released the live recording of the Royal Albert Hall concert just one month later on CD and DVD. This was followed by a CD release featuring the complete recording of the four piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Michael Francis. On her latest CD publication, Valentina Lisitsa presents various works by Franz Liszt. In February 2013, Valentina Lisitsa made her recital debut in the Grand Hall of the Berlin Philharmonie. Concert performances in 2013 and the 2013/14 season took her to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea, to Palma de Mallorca, to the Rheingau Musikfestival, to Cologne, Munich, and Stuttgart, to the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall London, to New York, Washington, and Chicago. From 2014, Valentina Lisitsa will perform, among others, in the Salle Pleyel in Paris with the Orchestre de Paris under Paavo Järvi, with the Staatskapelle Dresden, in the Prinzregententheater Munich, in London's Wigmore Hall, in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra in Vienna and Istanbul. As of: February 2014