Biography

Elena Tarasova
(piano)

Laureate of international piano competitions
Soloist of Moscow Concert Philharmonic Union “Mosconcert”
Participant of Moscow State Academic Philharmonic programs
Mover and art director of different youth musical cultural-educational projects.

Elena Tarasova was born on 16th of May, 1984 in Moscow. She started playing the piano when she was four years old. Her creative individuality was being formed and developed during eleven years at Olga E. Mechetina class (Children’s music school by Moscow Conservatory, then Academical Music School) who is honored teacher of Russian Federation. Elena had become a laureate of children and young competitions and festivals for that time, a scholar of International Charity Fund of Vladimir Spivakov and International Fund of Cultural Exchange (the president of the Fund is Konstantin Orbelyan), soloist of Philharmonic Association “Classical heritage”.

From 2002 to 2007 Elena was a student of Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. It was fortunate time of creative researches and bright achievements under the guidance of great Masters as professor, People’s Artist of Russian Federation Sergey L. Dorensky and professor, Honored Artist of Russian Federation Pavel T. Nersessian, People’s Artist of Russia, professor Tigran A. Alikhanov (chamber ensemble class), Honored Artist of Russia, professor Margarita I. Kravtchenko (concertmaster art class). Successfully graduated Conservatory, Elena continued her studying at postgraduate course (2007-2011) at Sergey L. Dorensky and Pavel T. Nersessian class. During her postgraduate studies Elena was training in addition at Tigran A. Alikhanov and Margarita I. Kravtchenko class.

“Elena Tarasova is an excellent pianist. Over the last years she has become a significant artist. She has delicate musicality and bright temperament. She is constantly broadening her repertory and she often performs with the concerts”.
People’s Artist of Russia, professor of Moscow Conservatory, Academician
S. L. Dorensky

Elena is laureate of international competitions, among them we may emphasize 2nd award of IV International competition of pianists named after N. Rubinstein (Paris, 1999), 1st award of competition “Classical heritage. In memoriam S. V. Rakhmaninov” (Moscow, 2001), 1st award and special award of Carla Giuidici «Premio Iacopo Napoli» of the competition «Citta di Morcone 2006» (Italy, 2006). Also she is a holder of Summer Academy diploma «Mozarteum» (Salzburg, Austria, 2003) and diploma of «Musical Spring at the Mill» (Moulin d'Ande, France, 2005).

As the soloist of Moscow Concert Philharmonic Union “Mosconcert” and the participant of programs of Moscow State Academical Philharmonic (MGAF) Elena actively concretizes with soloistic and symphonic programs in Moscow, in Russian cities (touring biography of the Artist is more than sixty cities), she takes part in international festival abroad as well (France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic, Japan). Elena’s performances have continually transmitted on Radio France, “Orpheus” radio station, “Russian World” Fund radio station.

In May, 2006 Elena Tarasova was honored to represent Moscow Conservatory at prestigious festival as Kyoto International Music Students Festival 2006 (Japan). In autumn, the same year Elena performed at “Japan-Russia Exchange Concerts 2006” project, which was from 5th September to 20th October as a concert tour in fourteen Japan cities. Elena was performing not only as soloist and ensemblist, but also she held some master-classes.

“Pianist Elena Tarasova is distinguished not only by her dedication in the profession, but also such qualities as honesty and sincerity regarding her surrounding and her own personality. It is especially noticeable at her play: where is no vanity, striving to please and be liked by the audience, and as a consequence, mannerism and imitation of the fashion are away from it. But human nobility combines harmonically with performing nobility. Years of performing work let Elena Tarasova create a vast repertory, where the main feature is not only closeness of each different composition for inner world of the Artist, but also its actuality and “common humanity”. And it does not matter if these are compositions of baroque epoch or opuses of twenty century’s composers – all of these gives full apprehensive about great taste of the performer and her ability to separate absolutely valuable from subordinate and insignificant”.
S.Golubenko, annotation for the CD

Elena’s repertory includes different styles and directions, and it also grasps temporal period from Scarlatti to Eshpay.

“We especially should mark the play manner of Elena Tarasova, that combines softness in itself, filigree technique and force, that let her greatly embody absolutely different music images”.
Newspaper “Russian musician”

“…Chopin, Liszt, Rakhmaninov – are Lena’s nature where she possesses all multicolor of piano’s tints. She has her own system of adaptation before going to the stage. The look is estranged, and with her inner hearing she replays the program in her head… Then celebration of the mass starts, and during this time nothing exists except the Music. It is the professionalism of the high standard”.
Magazine “Musician”

“Significant impression was left by careful, elegant initial touch of Elena Tarasova. “Circularity” of phrasing, drill and conciseness of details, irreproachable petty technique – all of these are together with aspiration “to impart the character of composition”, but not “to make the character of soloist-virtuoso”. The quality is not often seen among modern pianists, who often tend to “physicality”. However, we would like to find out hereafter, how this “character” will be formed by the pianist at concerts of other composers, that are absolutely different from their image: for instance, Brahms or Shostakovich”.
Magasine “Florestan”

“15th April, 2006 there was a symphonic concert in Bolshoy concert hall of Lenin memorial in Ulianovsk. It was dedicated to 100th anniversary of the birth of D. D. Shostakovich. As a part of this concert there was played Concert № 1 for piano with orchestra with hand of Moscow pianist – Elena Tarasova. The concert became an undoubted event in cultural life of the town. Elena Tarasova approved herself as a talented musician with irreproachable professional preparation, natural feeling and comprehension of composer’s style. High ensemble qualities of performer, sincere and true feeling of author humor in the music, brightness and effervescent of piano technique, also incendiary emotion together with artistic relaxedness and freedom of music-making assured great success of young pianist at the concert. Audience greeted with fervour the performing of certainly gifted and promising budding star, a student of Moscow State Conservatory – Elena Tarasova”.
Art director and chief conductor UlGASO, Honored man of art of Russia, professor
S. V. Ferulev

Elena has presented not just once the refined repertory rarities to the audience, paying with the same attention to little-known or undeservingly forgotten compositions both to general public and performers.

“Elena Tarasova is very feminine, soft and lovely. She was playing seldom sounded composition of Mozart – Ten variations on a topic from comic opera K. V. Gluck “Pilgrims from Mecca”. Inexhaustible fantasy of composer makes us put on absolutely unthinkable dresses but habitual and known by coevals of Mozart’s melody. Irreproachable mastery, grateful elegance, slight slyness, brilliant humor and nice coquetry are generous gift of Elena Tarasova that is awarded by terrific applause”.
E. Ponomareva, Art director of Murom Philharmonic.

Technical skill of Elena was marked at such halls as Bolshoy, Maly, Rakhmaninov halls of Moscow conservatory; The Hall of Synods of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour; Svetlanovsky, Chamber, Theatre halls of Мoscow International Performing Arts Centre; Vrubelevsky hall of Tretyakov gallery; Steinway-Haus (Dusseldorf), Ballsaal Altes Kurhaus Aachen (Ааchen), Germany; People’s House of Vinograd (Concert Hall “Mayakovsky”); Bethlehem Chapel in Prague; Kioi Hall (Tokyo), NHK Osaka Hall (Osaka), Alti Hall and Kyoto Concert Hall (Kyoto), Shirakawa Hall (Nagoya), Tohoku Fukushi University, Music Palace «Keyaki Hall» (Sendai) and others.

“Concerts with Elena’s participation with great success and full house were on the most prestigious stages of Czech Republic. We would like to mention that she particularly got the hottest ovation and the most exultant comments after concerts, including her Czech colleagues and musical and concert producers”.
“THE WORLD OF CULTURE”, independent noncommercial organization of culture art and education support.

“The concerts were with tremendous success. Elena Tarasova delicately and spiritually played soloistic compositions of Chopin, Rakhmaninov, Liszt, besides she proved herself as sensitive partner playing chamber music for violin and piano. These performances impressed both general audience and highly qualified professionals of Germany and found exultant feedback at press”.
ALLA BLATOW KLAVIERSTUDIO, Germany.

Making soloistic playing as priority, Elena successfully performs as the participant of different chamber ensembles as well and she has wide chamber repertory.

“Elena Tarasova is a young outstanding pianist, having great performing characteristics, bright art individuality. She shows her interest to ensemble music-making, where she opens herself as sensitive partner”.
Docent of Moscow conservatory, soloist of MGAF
K. V. RODIN.

A pompous concert life gave Elena the opportunity to cooperate with many talented performers: laureate of international competitions, a soloist of MGAF Gayk Kazazian (violin), a soloist of MGAF Yulia Igonina (violin), a soloist of MGAF Kirill Rodin (violoncello), Iliya Gasin (violin), Asya Sorshneva (violin), Nadezhda Palitsina (violin), a soloist of Russian National Orchestra Vitaliy Nazarov (oboe), an official artist of the Steinway & Sons company Andrey Yaroshinskiy (piano), a string quartet «Rusquartet» and others.
Elena has worked with such conductors as Vladislav Bulakhov, Viacheslav Valeev, Sergey Ferulyov, Rashit Nigmatulin. Also she has performed with Symphonic orchestra of Moscow conservatory, Chamber orchestra “Vremena goda” (“Seasons of the year”), chamber and symphonic orchestras of Russian cities.

Since 2010 Elena has been teaching at Moscow Conservatory (concertmaster’s art department), has taken part at jury of competitions and festivals (Third International festival of children’s and youthful creative work “Stages of mastery – 2011” /Moscow, 2011/). Since 2011 Elena has become a member of Moscow Music Society.

Besides her performing and teaching activity, Elena is the mover and art director of variety youth cultural-educational projects. Forming the conception and holding such projects, full of freshness and original repertory discoveries are important trait of her creative work. The major projects of all the projects for the moment are festival “The 110th anniversary of the birth of Fransis Poulenc” (25th December, 2008 – 25th April, 2009), and First youth music festival “Russian evenings” (18th April – 31st May, 2011, Moscow; 30th April – 10th June 2011, Saint-Petersburg).

Festival “110th anniversary of the birth of Francis Poulenc” (25th December, 2008 – 25th April, 2009), presented not only cycle of monoprograms, that lets deeply and catholically acquaint audience with Poulenc’s creative work, but also with variety of concerts, dedicating to the music of his coevals. It was a response of another aim of the project – reconstruction of music sphere of the epoch where French maestro was living and working. Elena was as a mover, a project director and performer. The project was prepared within 14 months in co-authorship with a musicologist, a clavecinist and a student of Moscow conservatory Nataliya Renyova and a lecturer of Moscow conservatory, a flutist Sviatoslav Golubenko.

“Mover and director of the festival was a postgraduate student of Moscow conservatory Elena Tarasova – a concertize pianist, who was as a chief of a scale project for the first time. It was the time when she could accept the greetings: no any organizational difficulties stopped her to perform a magnifical part of the program, proving herself successfully at all guises of the profession …”.
Magazine “PLANET BEAUTY”.

For the meaningful cultural-educational youth projects, which idea, organization and realization again were made by Elena, also refers a concert-monograph “Eugenie Svetlanov is the composer” (8th June, 2010, Moscow). The concert was as a part of First Slavonian art forum “Golden Knight” /President of the forum is Nikolay Burliaev/, there was the music of maestro Eugenie Fedorovich Svetlanov at the program.
/Official site of the project www.svetlanovconcert.com./

“My “appearance” at this projects as mover and chief absolutely does not connect with the wish to do the management, producing. It is simply the idea of performer, probably, who has a tendency to form cultural-educational concepts and an attempt to externalize this idea”.
“The possibility of externalizing my conception into the life is interesting for me. And possibility to add a new trait in cultural life of society. Furthermore, I get sincere pleasure from art communication with performers-participants of the project, where everyone is very appreciated by me”.
From Elena Tarasova’s interview.

One more meaningful and scale project of Elena is First youth musical festival “Russian Evenings” (18th April – 10th June, Moscow and Saint-Petersburg). This multidimensional cultural-educational project, that combined young musicians of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg, had become unique cultural bridge, directing to development and reinforcement of youth art dialogue between representatives of performing schools of Saint-Petersburg and Moscow, that were founded in due time by brothers Anton and Nikolay Rubinstein.

Festival got support from leading concerts, musical and educational organiztions of Moscow and Saint-Petersburg. Guardian council held 19 leading representatives of art sphere, among of them were People’s artists of USSR as Vasily Lanovoy, Uriy Solomin, Rodion Nakhapetov, Vladimir Minin, People’s artists of Russian Federation as Immanuel Vitorgan, Mikhail Utkin, Tigran Alikhanov, Sergey Slonimsky, Vasily Gerello, Honored artists of Russian Federation as Margarita Kravtchenco, Pavel Nersessian.

At overhead personnel there are musicologist, a member of Moscow Music Society Maria Bakun (executive officer), journalist, an employee of Heritage Fund of painter A. D. Tikhomirov – Ekaterina Gogoleva (executive producer), photo artist Pavel Tchannikov (executive producer), laureates of international competitions Galina Zhukova (art director of the project in Saint-Petersburg), Nina Moskvina (PR-director of the project in Saint-Petersburg), painter, designer Vladimir Golovachev (executive producer).
/Offical site of festival www.russianevenings.com./

Co-authorship with Maria Bakun and Ekaterina Gogoleva, Elena prepared transmission cycle of educational radio programs specially for Fund radio station “Russian World” (June, 2011).