| Valentina Lisitsa was born in Kiev in the Ukraine. She | | | | Valentina Lisitsa has been described as dazzling and |
| began to play the piano at the age of three. By age | | | | electrifying in her musical abilities. She has a wide |
| four, she had already performed her first solo recital. | | | | repertoire that includes Bernstein, Mozart, Shostakovich |
| She first studied music at the Lysenko School of Music | | | | and Mozart. She especially loves Beethoven and |
| and then went on to the Kiev Conservatory. Eventually | | | | Rachmaninoff, who are known to be her favorites. |
| she moved to the United States of America and | | | | One of her musical goals is to record all of |
| became a citizen. | | | | Beethoven's piano sonatas. She has already |
| Valentina married another musician who was a pianist, | | | | performed more than forty concerts at this point. |
| as well. His name is Alexei Kuznetsoff and he is her | | | | She has worked with many renowned orchestras |
| musical partner as well as her husband. They have a | | | | including the Sao Paolo Symphony, the New Zealand |
| three year old son and two cats. The couple lives in | | | | Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic and Prague |
| the countryside of North Carolina. She enjoys the rural | | | | Chamber Orchestra. |
| setting because it is peaceful and a retreat from her | | | | She also enjoys performing chamber music, which is a |
| busy lifestyle as well as her constant business related | | | | more intimate grouping of musicians. One of her |
| travel. | | | | important musical partnerships has been with Hilary |
| Her hobbies include a bit of organic gardening and fine | | | | Hahn, who is a talented violinist. In 2007, she and Hahn |
| tuning the restoration of her large southern mansion. | | | | toured Japan together and have upcoming plans to |
| She also likes to cook and Italian food tends to be her | | | | tour Europe and North and South America. |
| favorite. Music, of course, is her huge passion and she | | | | Valentina has recorded multiple CDs and DVDs. The |
| has four concert grand pianos at her house with which | | | | CDs were recorded on the Audiofon label and the |
| to practice. Her preferred piano brand is said to be | | | | DVDs were made independently. A set of her Chopin |
| Bosendorfer, and is especially fond of a model called | | | | recordings was extremely popular and hit the number |
| the Flagship Imperial. | | | | one spot on Amazon's musical listing. |