![]() ![]() But when Lisitsa started talking in public, it became an open war of words. It was the kind of dispute that’s usually kept under wraps in the scandal-averse classical music world. In April, Twitter, politics and concert promoters swirled together into a perfect storm in Toronto. According to a 2013 New York Times interview, “Lisitsa, a self-described ‘contrarian,’ is argumentative and outspoken, tweeting about politics and berating concert promoters who have irked her.” And well aware that she doesn’t owe anyone anything, she sports an edgy, independent attitude. Lisitsa stands out as a rare example of self-made success in a musical culture where progress is often governed by a tight-knit network of mentors and their protégés. A lot of YouTube stars try to cross the barrier, but very few people have actually succeeded. It was an experiment on both sides, and the pressure was enormous. “When they called me,” she says, “they wanted to know how YouTube popularity would translate into ticket sales. She vividly remembers her 2012 appearance at London’s Royal Albert Hall as her biggest leap from the screen to the stage. It was an easy decision, and we learned from each other as we went.” But Niall O’Rourke, the head of Decca, really believed in me. I talked to another label, and they wanted to know more about my success – as if there was a trick behind it. “I had meetings with several labels, over a few years, before I signed with Decca. “By the time I got to 40 million views, I was on the record companies’ radar screens,” she notes. Lisitsa created more videos, posting them on YouTube, and their popularity grew by leaps and bounds. My husband learned how to make videos, and record sound. Today I find it painful to watch, because the resolution is poor. It was done as a project at the University of Miami for film students, so they could learn how to make music videos. ![]() “The first video,” she says, “was an obscure Rachmaninoff étude, Op. Maybe she could be a translator for the CIA? For a while she sold housewares on eBay.Īs Lisitsa tells it, she started making YouTube videos almost by accident. But I was not taught.” Frustrated, she thought of other lines of work. Today in music conservatories this is starting to change – there are courses in promotion. “We learned music, but nobody taught us the business. “My school in Urkaine was like so many music schools,” Lisitsa recalls. The duo moved to the USA, married, and settled down in North Carolina.īut Lisitsa was in for a rude shock when the big career that her competition victory seemed to tantalizingly offer failed to materialize. In 1991, she and the pianist Alexei Kuznetzoff won first prize in the Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition in Miami, Florida. She attended the Lysenko School for Gifted Children (where she studied music and also chess) and then the Kiev Conservatory. Sometimes critics may say something like, ‘For a YouTube pianist, she’s not so bad.’ I try to take it in stride, but I know where I stand.”īorn in 1973 in Kiev, of mixed Polish-Russian-Ukrainian ancestry, she followed the path that the Soviet system laid out for prodigies. The music establishment looks at me that way. “Yes, definitely yes!” she declares, in her thick East European accent. She proudly acknowledges her outsider status in the music business. the Toronto Symphony Orchestra” a little farther down.) (And she certainly found herself in the midst of a fight in Toronto, in April. She’s determined, opinionated, street-smart and not afraid of a fight. Lisitsa has always refused to play by the rules of the classical music industry, or to accept the decisions of its gate-keepers. But scratch below the surface, and it’s clear that this particular kind of success could only have been achieved by a particular kind of artist. In retrospect, it almost sounds easy – all she needed was a piano, a camera, a microphone, and some technical know-how. Today, she has an international career and a recording contract with the Decca label. Since 2007 the 41-year-old musician with flowing blonde hair has posted about 200 clips online, receiving about 80 million views worldwide. She’s classical music’s first “YouTube sensation,” who famously became famous by posting clips of her performances on the popular video-sharing website. There are many pianists, but there is only one Valentina Lisitsa. This article was originally published on the website Wolfgang’s Tonic.
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