Elena Tarasova is a Russian pianist, born in Moscow on May 16, 1984. She began studying music at the age of four at Children’s Music School No. 9 with Galina Sidorova. From 1990 to 2002, she studied with Olga Mechetina at the music school and then the Academic Music College affiliated with the Moscow Conservatory.
From 2002 to 2010, Tarasova studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Sergei Dorensky and Pavel Nersessian, and also attended special classes with Andrei Pisarev and Nikolai Lugansky. After completing postgraduate study in 2010, she began teaching at the conservatory, where she is an associate professor. She made her first stage appearance at five and gave her first solo concert at eleven.
Tarasova has won prizes at international competitions in Russia, France, Italy, and Serbia. In 2009, she received the Golden Lyre award in the category “Woman of the Year: Moscow’s Creative Elite.” She was a soloist with the Moscow Concert and Philharmonic Association Mosconcert from 2006 to 2014 and has been a guest soloist with the Moscow State Academic Philharmonic since 2006. Her concert work has taken her to cities in Russia, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Netherlands, and Japan. Her performances have been broadcast on radio and television, including Radio France and Russia’s Orpheus radio station.
Her repertoire spans music from the Baroque era to the 21st century, and she has performed works in world and Russian premieres. She created a solo-piano transcription of Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, Op. 45. Tarasova has also developed concert programs as themed concepts, including what she calls an “acoustic performance,” combining piano recital with a broader exploration of how music is created and heard.
Her recordings include Finding Time (2012), Sound Illusions: Collage (2018), La Folie (2020), Symbol of Faith (2023), and Rachmaninoff: Rare Piano Works and New Transcriptions (2025). Piano News gave Sound Illusions: Collage its highest ratings for interpretation and sound, and awarded La Folie its highest interpretation rating. Tarasova gives master classes in Russia and abroad, serves on juries for competitions and festivals, and has been a member of the permanent jury of the WPTA International Piano Competition in Serbia since 2018. She is also a member of the World Piano Teachers Association and the International Union of Musical Figures, and is the concept creator and artistic director of the international music project Opus Universum.