Elena Tarasova (piano)
Elena Tarasova is a laureate of international piano competitions, associate professor of Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, founder and artistic director of different festivals and concert series, member of the World Piano Teachers Association and the International Union of Musical Statesmen.
Elena was born on May 16, 1984, in Moscow. She started playing the piano when she was four years old and had her first on-stage appearance at the age of five. Her creative individuality was formed and developed over the course of eleven years in Olga E. Mechetina’s class in the Children’s Music School at the Academic Music College of Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Academic Music College of the Conservatory. Then Elena began her studies at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory under the guidance of professors Sergey L. Dorensky and Pavel T. Nersessian; she also attended classes by professors Andrei A. Pisarev and Nikolai L. Lugansky. After graduating from the Conservatory with honors, she started her postgraduate studies in the class of Sergey L. Dorensky and Pavel T. Nersessian. Upon graduating in 2010, she was invited to join the teaching staff of the Conservatory.
One of Elena’s references, given by Sergey L. Dorensky in 2007 for her postgraduate application to the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, stated: “Elena Tarasova is an excellent pianist. Over the recent years she has become a significant artist. She has delicate musicality and bright temperament. She is constantly expanding her repertoire and she often performs with the concerts”. Elena continues actively adding to her already extensive repertoire, which covers various styles and genres and spans time periods from the Baroque era to the XXI century. Also she has performed at the World and Russian premieres of several new compositions. The year of S. Rachmaninov’s 150th anniversary was the first year when Elena tried her hand at piano transcription, adding her own version of Rachmaninov’s «Symphonic Dances» op.45 to her solo piano repertoire.
The high level of her performance was noted in Russia, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Netherlands and Japan. Elena has played in the halls of Paris, Montpellier, Lille, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Sarajevo, Novi Sad, Prague, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Sendai, Nagoya, Gifu, Saitama, Matsuyama, Kagoshima, Fukushima, Naha (Okinawa) and many other cities.
Among international festivals and significant music projects Elena’s biography includes the following projects: Japan-Russia Cultural Exchange Concerts (Japan), Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier (artistic director — R. Koering), Lille National Orchestra Festival (artistic director – J.-C. Casadesus), «Fridays At The Pushkin Museum» (artistic director – A. Genina), Sergey Rachmaninov International Music Festival (artistic director – N. Lugansky), «Concordia» International Music Festival (artistic director – A. Sladkovsky), Russian Symphonic Forum (Ekaterinburg), festival «Radio ORFEY presents», etc.
Elena pays special attention to the arranging her repertoire by forming the architectonics of each performance concept. Her concert seasons feature monographic programs-chronicles, marathons, various programs-concepts; among her brilliant experiments is putting to life a solo piano program designed as an acoustic performance.
Elena has recorded several CD with compositions of F. Couperin, J.S. Bach, F. Liszt, C. Debussy, C. Saint-Saëns, P. Tchaikovsky, S. Rachmaninov, A. Scriabin, M. Ravel, S. Prokofiev, I. Stravinsky, J. Françaix. Her recordings repeatedly received praise from the foreign press, while her interpretations have been consistently rated at the top of ratings in European music media.
She is known for her collaboration with orchestras, chamber music groups and artists, such as Symphonic orchestra of Moscow Conservatory, Vyatcheslav Valeev, Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra, Gayk Kazazyan, Philipp Kopachevsky, Roberto Forés Veses, Alexandr Zagorinsky, Kirill Rodin, Sergey Eletsky, Elena Korzhenevich, Anna Yanchishina, Sergey Poltavsky, Andrey Yaroshinsky, Alexey Kudryashov, Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolayev, Nail Mavlyudov, Pavel Baransky, Vitaly Vatulya, Alexey Kurbatov, Sergey Suvorov, Ilya Gaisin, Sergey Ferulyov, Rashit Nigamatullin, Anton Pavlovsky, Rusquartet, Victor Khotulev, and many others.
Elena is associate professor of Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Also she gives master-classes in Moscow and other Russian cities, in Germany, France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Japan.
She serves as a judge in various competitions and festivals. Since 2018 Elena is a judge at the annual WPTA International Piano Competition (Serbia).
Elena is a member of various public organizations and professional unions: the World Piano Teachers Association, the International Union of Musical Statesmen. From 2021 to the present, she is a member of the Board of Trustees of the S.V. Rachmaninov Museum-Reserve “Ivanovka”.
Elena is the founder and artistic director of a number of festivals and concert series. The creation of concepts and the holding of such projects, full of fresh and original repertory discoveries, are an important trait of her creative work. The largest of Elena’s projects are the festival “The 110th anniversary of the birth of Francis Poulenc” (2008-2009) and “OPUS UNIVERSUM” international music project (since 2016).