A biography on Lisitsa's website said in 2019-20 that she was splitting her time living between Moscow and Rome. After graduating from the conservatory in Kyiv she moved to the United States in 1991 with her partner, fellow pianist Aleksei Kuznetsov, whom she later married. In May 2022, Budapest's Margitsziget Theater canceled a planned performance by Lisitsa, citing the Mariupol appearance and, in December of the same year, an invitation to play at the legendary La Fenice opera house in Venice was withdrawn by the organizers.īorn to a Ukrainian father and a mother of Russian and Polish descent, Lisitsa grew up speaking Russian. A video clip of her playing and her purported rendition of "Victory Day" were used by Russian-backed separatists and pro-Kremlin state media to propagandize for Russian "liberation." The clip's timing, May 9, appeared to be symbolic as it fell on the day that Russia marks its victory in World War II over Nazi Germany, further infuriating Ukraine's defenders on social media. She touted herself as having become adept at "unmasking fakes published by Western media."Ī few months after the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Lisitsa performed under Russian occupation in the devastated southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol. accusing "haters" of trying to "silence me as a musician."Īmong other controversial statements, Lisitsa described Ukraine's situation after 2014 as a "civil war" and repeated pro-Kremlin talking points such as the prevalence of "neo-Nazi" elements in Ukraine. Lisitsa's troubles started in 2015, when her concert with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra was canceled after controversial comments she made about the conflict in eastern Ukraine. "The thesis that we should judge the creator by their art and not by their personality is fundamentally important, but not always effective," Licheva said, calling the Sofia Philharmonic's invitations "shameful and immoral." In a time of war, she said, "art must give way to morality." Amelia Licheva, a professor of literature in Sofia, told RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service that she wants recently installed Bulgarian Culture Minister Nayden Todorov, an accomplished musician and conductor who has performed with Lisitsa and still directs the Sofia Philharmonic, to exclude Lisitsa from the April 20 and 23 concerts to celebrate 150 years since the birth of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. The move is sparking backlash and calls for her planned performances to be canceled. But not in Bulgaria's capital, where the 53-year-old pianist is expected to play twice in April. Lisitsa's fans will relish her return to the arena, and for newcomers, this is certainly a reasonable place to begin in sampling her wares.SOFIA - After embracing Russia's war on Ukraine, Valentina Lisitsa, a Kyiv-born classical pianist and the self-styled "Queen of Rachmaninoff," has seen her concerts canceled around the world. Every note is in place in the final movement, "Scarbo," but especially compelling is the first movement, where the various registers of the piano emerge with unusual brilliance. Perhaps the biggest surprise on this outing is that she emerges as an impressive interpreter of Ravel's most virtuosic work, Gaspard de la Nuit. The 1908 title is technically accurate both the Rachmaninov and the Ravel works on the program come from that year, but there was nothing that motivated them in common about 1908, which was more important for Schoenberg. There isn't a great deal of individual personality in her music, although she's a charismatic figure in a general way. She's a formidable talent in Rachmaninov and other virtuoso music, leaning toward Eastern Europe. Through it all, Lisitsa has remained consistent in her music-making. She has, as of this writing, kept quiet about events in her homeland in early 2022. With this 2022 release, Lisitsa moves to the boutique label Naïve, quite a shift from her earlier semi-crossover status. Then she ran into trouble by backing the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 and suffered concert cancellations and a recording hiatus. She had technique to spare, but established labels had varying success in trying to exploit her celebrity. and was among the first to grasp the power of online videos. Emerging from Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union, she landed in the U.S. The career of pianist Valentina Lisitsa has had various twists and turns.
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