Born in Tbilisi, Russia, Elisabeth Leonskaja has been one of the most celebrated pianists of our time for decades. While still a student, she won prizes at the famous Enescu, Marguerite Long and Queen Elisabeth international piano competitions. Elisabeth Leonskaja's musical development was decisively influenced by her collaboration and friendship with Sviatoslav Richter. Elisabeth Leonskaja left the Soviet Union in 1978 to become a Viennese by choice. Their musical and personal friendship lasted until Richter's death.
Elisabeth Leonskaja has performed as a soloist with almost all of the world's first-class orchestras and is a welcome and regular guest at the festivals in Vienna, Schleswig-Holstein, Schwarzenberg and Hohenems, as well as in the piano series of major musical centers such as Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Prague, Warsaw, Bucharest, London, Vienna and Tokyo. Despite all her solo activities, chamber music retains a large place in her work.
Her solo CD "PARIS" with works by Ravel, Enescu and Debussy was selected as Solo Recording of the Year 2014 by the ICMA jury. A very personal recording was released in November 2017 Saudade' with works by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Rachmaninov. Elisabeth Leonskaja's recording of Franz Schubert's complete piano sonatas was released in two parts (2017 and 2019).
In her second home country, the Republic of Austria, she is an honorary member of the Vienna Konzerthaus. In 2006, she was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art First Class for special services to the country's culture. In Georgia, she was appointed Priestess of Art in 2015, the highest honor for an artist. In 2020, she received the International Classical Music (ICMA) Lifetime Achievement Award.