Take a sparkling musical talent, multiply it by years of hard work and determination, then add beauty, elegance and passion and the result can be called LOLA ASTANOVA. Born in 1982 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (former USSR), Lola began learning the piano at the age of six with her mother. In 1989 Ms. Astanova entered the elite V. Uspensky Specialized School of Music for Gifted Children, and became the finest student of the school that has given the world Alexei Sultanov and Stanislav Yudenich. Throughout her student years, Lola frequently visited Moscow for private classes with the "godfather of the Russian piano school" - Professor Lev Naumov of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory. It was Dr. Naumov who said: "When it comes to classical music, Lola Astanova possesses a rare and truly ingenious intuitive ability. Chopin performed by Lola is simply outstanding."

Ms. Astanova began touring as a performer at the age of eight. She has played concerts in the United States, Germany, France, Austria, Italy and Russia both as a soloist and with orchestras. Among those are the Big National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan, World Youth Orchestra, and Big National Symphony Orchestra of Kazakhstan. Maestro Marcelo Abbado, who attended many of Lola's performances, described her as "a wonderful pianist with a repertoire full of very difficult compositions." Lola performs music by various composers, and her twelve piano concerti repertoire features, among others, Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini", Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", Mozart's No. 20, Beethoven's No. 1, and Tchaikovsky's No. 1. However, Frédéric Chopin, "The Poet of the Piano," remains her first love in music.

In 1996 Ms. Astanova became a Laureate of the Second International Chopin Competition for Young Pianists in Moscow. Her performances at the Big & Small Hall of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory were featured in a Chopin Compilation album released in Europe by Zvuk Records and the Russian Chopin Society. The same year Ms. Astanova played at the UNESCO event in Paris, France, and her performance was featured in a UNESCO documentary "Prodigies of the 20th Century." In the year 2000 Lola traveled to Europe with a series of solo programs as well as Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1 that she performed with Mahrische Philharmonie (Conductor Volker Schmidt Gertenbach) in Vienna, Austria. Her magnificent shows have been highlighted in the international media including CNN and BBC reports. According to Klaus Hellwig, "Lola has an amazing ability to project her music in large halls and captivate her audiences," and Maestro Abbado simply wrote: "When Lola is on stage, audience is happy!"

For years Ms. Astanova had enjoyed tremendous attention and recognition in her home country. She was frequently written up in national newspapers and appeared on television. As a young girl her status was already equal to that of an Olympic Champion or an Astronaut. She was frequently invited to perform at the Presidential Palace for the visiting foreign dignitaries. Yet, despite all the accolades, in 2001 Lola made a decision to leave her native country, not wanting to live under the autocratic political regime. The reasons for her decision Lola explains with the quote from the Nobel Prize-Winning poet Iosif Brodsky: "I left my motherland because it is better to be a complete failure in democracy, than an icon for millions in despotism." As a child Lola was deeply touched by the musical individuality and electrifying virtuosity of Vladimir Horowitz. Ironically, today, almost a century after Horowitz first came to the United States, Lola is following into the footprints of the man and the artist that she admires so much.

Although Ms. Astanova was admitted to the Masters Programs at the Hochschule Der Kunste in Berlin, Germany, Academia Pianistica de Cadenabbia in Como, and Conservatorio Di Musica Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, Italy and at the Moscow State Conservatory in Russia, in 2003 she made a decision to continue her education and professional music career in the United States. Currently Ms. Astanova is working under the artistic mentorship of internationally acclaimed pianist Robert Roux at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where she was accepted with a full scholarship and the Presidential Scholars Award. Ms. Astanova is completing the recording of her first solo album, which is scheduled for release in the United States in late 2004.