Valentina Lisitsa tells her story - 20230505 - Pangea Grandangolo

Ninety-seventh episode of Pangea Grandangolo, an international press review for Byoblu TV channel, aired on 05/05/2023.
Excerpts from the interview done by Jean Toschi Marazzani Visconti:
“In the Soviet Union classical music was strongly sponsored. I received a very high quality education in a music school; I studied at the Russian Piano School. Despite being the daughter of simple proletarian parents, I was able to study for free with the best teachers. Then the dissolution of the Soviet Union came upon us like a boulder. You are in a country that is no longer what you knew, among people who do not care about what you do. The only way was to get out of that place.”
“We considered ourselves lucky, my future husband and I, to win the Piano Competition in the United States in 1991. We were elated, we were more American than most Americans. And we forgot about our native country. We believed every word that was said on television. This terrible disconnect between what you see and what you know has been felt not only by us since 2014. I started translating some videos about what was happening in Ukraine and posted them on Twitter. I was told to mind my own business, to go to the piano and not talk. However, I am very stubborn. Then came the time when they canceled my concert in Toronto, Canada. They accused me of badmouthing Stepan Bandera.”
Later, in 2015, they invited me to give a concert in Donetsk. There was a sea of people, many people came out, risking their lives. Then I went to Mariupol when they were celebrating May 9, the day of victory over Nazi Germany. It was the first time in many years that people celebrated it openly. It was very moving. The boys took the piano from the cafeteria, put it on the street, and I played. I also played in front of the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow to remember the Odessa massacre.”
“Of course I made many enemies in the West by doing these concerts, but I reunited with my people. I am an American citizen and now also a Russian citizen, because I was given citizenship of the Donetsk People’s Republic and I could have Russian citizenship. I don’t deny that I don’t want to be considered Ukrainian or American, because there is another Ukraine, there is another America. There is also another Europe. In all of these I identify myself. I see my future where there is music. Music, culture is what unites us. This goes directly to the heart of the Russian, the Italian, the Chinese or the Japanese, the Belgian or the Brazilian. It is a universal language. I believe that all wars will eventually end. People will wake up from the nightmare. And there will be a time of reconstruction, a time of creation. I think it will come, I hope to see this, that at least our children will see this.”
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