A soprano, teacher, People’s Artist of the Armenian SSR (1987), and Honoured Artist of Russia (1997).
She began her studies in 1957 at the Central Music School of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in the harp class.
In 1965 she graduated from the Vocal Department of the M. M. Ippolitov‑Ivanov Music College (class of N. A. Verbova), and in 1969 from the Gnesin State Musical and Pedagogical Institute (now the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music), again in Verbova’s class.
Since 1965 she has been a soloist with the Moscow State Academic Philharmonic (the Madrigal Ensemble), and since 1973 she has sung in duet with her sister.
She has made numerous radio and television recordings, including:
- V. Gavrilin’s cycle «Vechyrok»;
- a cycle by I. Manukyan to texts by English poets, in duet with Yursky;
- folk songs from around the world.
Commercial CD recordings include:
- «Russian Romance»;
- «Songs of the War Years»;
- «German Romanticism».
Other audio recordings include:
- «Schumann Duets»;
- «Twelve Songs by Weber» with guitar (a trio with her sister Karina and brother Ruben);
- Beethoven’s and Haydn’s folk‑song arrangements;
- «Forgotten America»;
- works by Rossini, Schumann, Brahms, Handel, Tchaikovsky, and others;
- Mozart’s «Requiem»;
- Brahms’s «Liebeslieder» waltzes («Songs of Love»);
- Bach cantatas;
- quartets from Verdi’s «Rigoletto» and Tchaikovsky’s «Eugene Onegin» (with her brother, sister, and father M. G. Lisitsian);
- scenes from various operas.
She has toured extensively worldwide and worked with conductors such as B. Haikin, G. Rozhdestvensky, V. Minin, A. Ponomaryov, A. Janson, L. Marquis, and others.
She has given masterclasses in many Russian cities and neighbouring countries, and has served on the juries of numerous vocal competitions (Vladimir, Moscow, Malta).
She is a laureate of the M. I. Glinka All‑Union Vocalists’ Competition (Fourth Prize, 1971) and of the International Vocal Competition in ’s‑Hertogenbosch (Second Prize, 1974, Netherlands).
Since 1996 she has taught at the A. V. Sveshnikov Academy of Choral Art and the Gnesin Music College, and since 2002 she has been on the teaching staff of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music.
