The German–French pianist Elena Fischer-Dieskau is consistently praised by critics and audiences for her intensely captivating stage presence, and provokes great enthusiasm each time she performs. She has appeared at prestigious festivals and concert halls around the world – at the Brahms-Gesellschaft Schleswig-Holstein, Lisztomanias (Rencontres Internationales Franz Liszt, Châteauroux), Earthquake concert series (Friedrichshafen), the Festival International de Colmar ‘Vladimir Spivakov’ (Alsace), the Auditorium du Louvre, Perth Concert Hall, and at the Cidade das Artes and Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro. Her performance at the latter venue of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2, with the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira, was attended by the pianist Nelson Freire, who called her ‘a great revelation’. In the media, she has recently been featured by BBC Radio Scotland in an interview with live performances, and she plays the role of a pianist in the French film director Mia Hansen- Løve’s debut feature Tout est pardonné (All Is Forgiven), performing music by Schumann and Beethoven.

Elena was born in Berlin into a family of musicians and started playing the piano at the age of six. She was admitted to the Conservatoire in Paris as a child, then obtained her undergraduate degree while studying with Vladimir Krainev at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover. Subsequently she was the recipient of a full-tuition scholarship to attend the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where she was invited to join the class of one of the most renowned pianists and pedagogues in the world, Leon Fleisher. She completed her graduate performance diploma under his guidance. She now lives in Edinburgh and is on the faculty of St Mary’s Music School.