화려한 기교와 넘치는 파워, 건반 위의 여검투사

3세 때 피아노를 시작하여 1년 후에 첫 독주회를 가지며 타고난 재능을 보인 발렌티나 리시차는 키예프 음악원에서 수학했고 1991년에는 알렉세이 쿠즈네초프와 호흡을 맞춰 The Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition에서 우승을 차지했다. 이후 리시차는 알렉시아 쿠즈네초프와 미국의 주요 29개 주에서 듀오 콘서트를 했으며 2006-2007 시즌에는 전미 순회 리사이틀을 진행하기도 했다. 2007~2008년에는 바이올리니스트 힐러리 한과 유럽과 미국 투어를 하였다.

리시차는 8개의 음반과 연주 영상이 담긴 3개의 DVD를 발매하였으며, 그 중 쇼팽의 24개의 에튀드는 아마존(Amazon)에서 클래식분야 최다 수량 판매로 기록되었다. 2010년 런던심포니오케스트라(London Symphony Orchestra, 지휘: Michael Francis)와 라흐마니노프의 콘체르토와 파가니니의 랩소디를 녹음, 2012년 봄에는 로얄 알버트 홀(Royal Albert Hall)에서 데카(DECCA)와 녹음 하였으며, 라흐마니노프 음반을 출시했다.

또한 카네기 홀 (Carnegie Hall), 애버리 피셔 홀(Avery Fisher halls) 등에서 공연하며 로린 마젤과 함께한 Orchestra Sinfonica Brasileira, 로테르담 필하모닉(Rotterdam Philharmonic), 시카고 심포니(Chicago Symphony), WDR SO 쾰른(WDR SO Cologne), 샌프란시스코 심포니(San Francisco Symphony), 피츠버그 심포니(Pittsburgh Symphony)등 세계 유수의 지휘자 및 오케스트라와 협연하였다. 특히 2012년에 영국 로열 알버트홀에서 온라인을 통해 청중들에 의해서 선정된 음악으로 가진 리사이틀은 그녀만의 트레이드 마크가 되었다. 현재 발렌티나 리시차는 데카클래식에서 음반을 전속 발매하고 있으며 세계적인 매니지먼트 그룹인 IMG artist에 소속되어 있다.

Valentina Lisitsa is not only the first “YouTube star” of classical music; more importantly, she is the first classical artist to have converted her internet success into a global concert career in the principal venues of Europe, the USA, South America and Asia.

The Ukraine-born artist began her musical education in her native city of Kiev at the Lysenko Music School for highly talented children and continued it at the Conservatoire in the city. Not confining herself to the musical world, she also dreamed of a career as a professional chess player.

After emigrating to the USA, Valentina launched herself as a piano-duet partner alongside her husband. Several competition successes and the consequent concert engagements marked the start of her life as a concert artist. Soon, however, Valentina Lisitsa looked for new ways of enlarging her audience. Her exceptional sense of new developments and her openness to unconventional approaches proved vital.

She posted her first video on the internet platform YouTube in 2007, a recording of the Etude op. 39/6 by Sergei Rachmaninoff. In a broadcast interview, she said: “My first YouTube clip was a lo-fi VHS recording on an awful school piano, and my hands were out of sync with the sound. But even so, my message came across to people. Straight away they started telling me that my interpretations meant something to them, that they changed things, that they stood out.” The views increased staggeringly; more videos followed. The foundation stone of a social-network career unparalleled in the history of classical music was laid. Her YouTube channel now records over 87 million clicks and 178.000 subscribers.

In 2010, Valentina Lisitsa played the Dutch premiere of the newly arranged “Piano Concerto No. 5“ (based on the Second Symphony) by Sergei Rachmaninoff with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. In 2011, she debuted with the Orchestra Sinfonica Brasileira under the baton of Lorin Maazel, having previously played with such orchestras as the Chicago Symphony, WDR SO Cologne, Seoul Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony. She has worked with Manfred Honeck, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Jukka-Pekka Saraste.

A spectacular recital in London’s Royal Albert Hall before an audience of 8000 in June 2012 set the seal on her international breakthrough. Listeners had the chance to vote online in advance for their preferred programme – a form of audience participation that has become one of Valentina Lisitsa’s “trade marks”.

The major label DECCA gave Lisitsa an exclusive artist contract, releasing the live recording of the RAH concert only one month later on CD and DVD. This was followed by a CD release with the complete recording of four piano concertos and the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff with the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Michael Francis. In October 2013, Valentina released her highly acclaimed CD with works for solo piano by Franz Liszt, including the allegedly unplayable and rarely recorded El contrabandista.

In March 2014 Lisitsa released a CD with film music miniatures of US legend Michael Nyman, to whom she dedicated her CD Chasing Pianos in honor of his 70th birthday. In November 2014, the Etudes album followed. Chopin and Schumann proved that etudes are much more than dry exercise pieces with their extensive Études Op. 10 and Op. 25 and the Symphonic Etudes, Op. 13. They created exciting, entertaining and highly challenging works that Valentina Lisitsa interprets in a fresh and clear manner. With her latest album Valentina Lisitsa plays Philip Glass, published in March 2015 she has once again turned towards the calmer, almost meditative sounds of Minimal Music.The double album contains the most important pieces for solo piano by Philip Glass, who became one of the most influential composers of our time with his personal style of minimalism.

In February 2013, Valentina Lisitsa made her debut in the large auditorium of the Berlin Philharmonie. Concert performances in the 2013/14 season have taken her to Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea, according to Palma de Mallorca, the Rheingau Music Festival, Cologne, Munich and Stuttgart, to the

BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London, to New York, Washington and Chicago. In 2014 she performed with Orchestre de Paris under Paavo Järvi, with Staatskapelle Dresden at Semperoper, in London’s Wigmore Hall, at Prinzregententheater München and Concertgebouw Amsterdam and with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra in Vienna and Istanbul.

In the 2014/15 season Valentina Lisitsa is performing in Madrid, Stockholm, Prague, Singapore, Jakarta and Cartagena (Colombia) as well as several dates in Germany, France, Italy, Holland, USA and Canada. The season includes performances with the MDR Radio Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Prague Symphony Orchestra, and a tour in South Korea.