Lolita Lisovskaya-Sayevich’s seat at the piano is usually several feet behind those of the other musicians onstage. But when the Tashkent native begins to play, you immediately take notice. Her musicianship operates on such a sophisticated level that she reminds us why these days we call such artists collaborative pianists. Lolita has never been an “accompanist” to anyone: She is one of the most extraordinary and prolific musicians in our region, and a pianist of international renown. 

And she is very, very busy. During the 17 years that she has lived in Kansas City, it is safe to say that she has performed onstage with more frequency than possibly any other professional local musician, with the possible exception of members of the Kansas City Symphony.

She is a virtuoso in a very real sense, and that fact is not lessened by her choice of collaborative piano as a career. From her very youngest years she “played well with others,” enjoying the social aspect of chamber music that has drawn people to it for centuries. 

“For me it was relaxing and enjoyable,” said Lolita, who since 2008 has served as director of collaborative piano at Park University’s International Center for Music. “I always love meeting new people, new musicians, playing with a lot of different musicians and students. Rehearsing is fun.” 

Chamber music, works requiring from two to nine players, is demanding: and often the pianist has more notes to play than anyone else. It requires a mastery of sight-reading, and this was one of Lolita’s gifts from an early age. Her grandmother, Yadviga Lisovskaya — who was also her first teacher — recognized the girl’s remarkable ability to read music prima vista. “And she said to me, okay, it’s time to ‘go to school,’ ” Lolita said. “So when I was five years old, she had me sit and sight-read every day.” 

Over time, she was able to read scores of increasing difficulty, and by 11 she was playing Mozart violin sonatas with her mother, herself a renowned violinist. But by this time Lolita was also becoming an advanced solo pianist, and before diving into the chamber repertoire, she wanted to master the concerto, sonata, and other solo works — “an enormous amount of repertoire that I had to practice, practice, practice.” 

Lolita studied at the best institutions, beginning with Tashkent’s celebrated Uspensky Special Music School, long regarded as one of the best music schools in Central Asia. (Among its extraordinary products are Park University musicians Stanislav Ioudenitch, Behzod Abduraimov, Shokhrukh Sadikov, and Ilkhom Mukhiddinov.) 

“I was the smallest one in the classroom,” said Lolita of her beginnings. “Everyone else was six or seven, and I was five.” But she was no stranger to the school, where several of her family members had taught or studied. She made rapid progress, eventually studying with Natalia Vasinkina, who a few years earlier had been Stanislav’s teacher. 

These were turbulent years for the then-Soviet republics, but Lolita had no time for politics: Her experience of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, and of the 1991 Uzbek declaration of independence, was that of a focused music student. “My grandmother had created an environment for me in which I just needed to practice,” she said. For all the talk of political upheaval at the time, Lolita’s day-to-day life barely changed. 

In 1993 she moved to Moscow for study, first at a new private institution and eventually at the Tchaikovsky Special Music School. She had already been accepted there as a student of Vera Gornostaeva, one of the most storied and respected pianists of modern times — who taught Sergei Babayan, Alexander Slobodyanik, Ivo Pogorelich, Vadym Kholodenko, and many others. 

In the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory, where she completed her bachelor’s and post-graduate degrees — eventually spending a decade with the teacher who was without doubt one of the most influential women in the history of Russian music. 

Vera Gornostaeva is less well-known in the West than her male counterparts — for reasons one can only speculate about — but her impact on Russian pianism of the 20th and early 21st centuries was profound. To be in her studio was to breathe a rarified air.

“We had a very nice chemistry,” Lolita said of her teacher, who had herself been a student of the great Heinrich Neuhaus, and whose recitals were said to be revelatory. “The way she explained things, her imagination in creating images, were unbelievable.” 

There was little talk of technique in these lessons. “You needed to have a very good basic technique coming in, because she never taught you how to play scales or octaves,” she said. 

“Gornostaeva activated musical imagination and creativity through use of musical imagery,” pianist Sergei Babayan said at the time of his former teacher’s death in 2015. “Everything was elevated, you were suddenly touching a world of great culture, paintings, literature — you became part of it.” 

Meanwhile Lolita was cutting a path as one of the region’s most gifted musicians. She won first prizes in the Chopin International Competition in Göttingen and the Nikolai Rubinstein International Competition; received scholarships from the Rostropovich Foundation and others; and recorded CDs in Frankfurt and Moscow. 

During her final years in Russia, Lolita began to move toward chamber music, eventually holding a full-time position as collaborative pianist at the Moscow Conservatory. As in many conservatories around the world, collaborative piano had by this time become a field of specialization for undergraduates — and an honorable and respected profession. 

Lolita might still be in Russia today if it were not for a happy twist of fate: Stanislav, whom she had known in Tashkent as a child, came to play a concert in Moscow. The Van Cliburn Competition Gold Medalist invited Lolita to visit the music program at Park University. “He said, Come and look around. If you don’t like it, you can always go back.” 

Arriving in Kansas City in 2006, she immediately felt at home. “There was Stanislav and Tatiana (Ioudenitch) … and lots of other Russian speakers and students. And then I met Ben.” Ben Sayevich had just moved from The University of Kansas to become the ICM’s professor of violin, and when he and Lolita met, they clicked instantly. 

She was invited to play the Mendelssohn D-minor Piano Trio with Ben and cellist Martin Storey, and in 10 days she learned one of the most difficult piano parts in the chamber repertoire. It was, after all, her first performance with Ben, whom she would later marry. “It was a very important concert for me,” she said. 

Initially Lolita was a student at Park, working with Stanislav and gaining a great deal from his unique musicianship and pianism. “He had a huge impact on my artistry,” she said. “He gave me so much, opened up new possibilities for me.” She promptly won first prize at the 2007 Iowa International Piano Competition. 

But she had found her “niche” in collaborative piano. In addition to the ICM concerts, today she performs with NAVO Arts, with students and professionals at international competitions, and in many other contexts here and abroad. 

Lolita prefers not to use iPads as music scores in concert, as many musicians do today. “I’m old-fashioned,” she said of the devices. “I’m afraid it will freeze, or get stuck. You never know.” 

And because she performs with a printed score on the piano’s music-stand, she likes to use someone she trusts as a page-turner — whenever possible, her daughter, Margarita. A freshman at Park Hill High School, Margarita is currently a standout on the debate team, but she also studied piano growing up and remains a whiz at following a music score. “She’s very good at this,” Lolita said. 

Lolita still believes strongly in the importance of chamber music for all music students, even for those with ambitions of solo careers.

“You need to have an ability to collaborate with different instrumentalists,” she said, “to listen to them, to make music with them. But also to expand your repertoire, because there is a huge amount of unbelievable chamber music.” 

Many gifted string and wind players will eventually play in orchestras. “So you need to be able to adjust to your partners — adjust the sound, the balance — and to know how to play and interact with different people.” 

—By Paul Horsley

To reach Paul Horsley, performing arts editor, send an email to paul@kcindependent.com or find him on Facebook (paul.horsley.501) or Twitter/Instagram (@phorsleycritic).