Who is Valentina Lisitsa?
To some, she is a pale silhouette with cascading blonde hair that can be found in front of a piano on YouTube. To Ukraine, she is a political tyrant. To any aspiring pianist, she is a hero. On Saturday the 18th of November, I had to privilege to listen to a one night only recital in Cape Town by Valentina Evgenievna Lisitsa, a 44-year-old concert pianist from Ukraine, who started playing the piano at age 3. Strangely enough, she initially wanted to become a professional chess-player. However, when she attended the Kiev Conservatory (a critically acclaimed music school in Ukraine), she met her future husband and ended up taking music more seriously (due to their shared passion for the discipline). What makes Valentina such a special concert pianist is the fact that she became famous through YouTube. Yes, she is the classical music alternative to Justin Bieber. Her husband started taking videos of her performing works of Chopin and Rachmaninov and he posted them onto YouTube. Her first video was posted 10 years ago in 2007, and her Chopin recordings actually reached the number one slot on Amazon’s classical video record-
ings and became the most-viewed set of Chopin recordings online.
pletely engulfed within her passion, but for just a moment, you are too.
In 2010, Valentina and her husband put their life savings into recording all 4 of Rachmaninov’s concerti with the London Symphonic Orchestra. This resulted in Decca Records signing a deal with her and releasing her CD-set of the above-mentioned concerti. In 2012 she made her debut in the Royal Albert hall, and became a fully-fledged concert-pianist.
Valentina Lisitsa is a rare specimen, for she has the power to personify the dark music of tortured composers such as Rachmaninov, and remain completely unscathed.
However, in 2015, Lisitsa faced controversy for her opposition of the Ukrainian government when the 2014 pro-Russian unrest took place in Ukraine. She tweeted such offensive tweets regarding the situation of her own country that some of her concerts were ancelled abroad. Some of her recordings were even removed from in-flight entertainment of the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
Even in the presence of a glass wall and poor internet connectivity due to a limited supply of data, she still has the ability to touch audiences internationally. Even in the presence of her controversial tweets, she can share the magic of music with anyone who is willing to listen.
“Not only is it clear that she is completely engulfed within her passion, but for just a moment, you are too.”
Despite her controversy, one cannot help but feel a surge of sheer wonder once a video of her playing Rachmaninov’s Little Red Riding Hood’is played. Not only is it clear that she is com-
Ansofi Pretorius CULTURE | 11