The Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa represents a noteworthy phenomenon of classical music in the early 21^st century: she found her way to the world’s most prestigious stages thanks to the videos that she has been putting on her YouTube channel since 2007 without any other promotion. As new recordings were added, the number of her followers grew at a breakneck pace, and the pianist soon was offered an exclusive recording contract with the Decca label, for which she has so far issued fourteen CDs. She is regarded as being most at home with the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff and Frédéric Chopin. She has been playing piano since the age of three, and she first appeared in public with a solo recital a year later. As a student, she seriously considered abandoning her piano career – her second greatest passion is chess – but music ultimately won out. She now lives in Paris and has given concerts at such venues as New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Golden Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein, and London’s Royal Albert Hall.