Elena Kuschnerova was the last pianistic discovery of Harold Schonberg (1915-2003), music critic for the New York Times and prolific author on great performers. After listening to her debut CD, he dubbed her a "Pianist who grabs the imagination", and he lauded her Scriabin CD as "the best recorded performances I am familiar with" (American Record Guide, 2000 and 2001). Earlier, Kuschnerova's Prokofiev CD (1997) had been awarded the prestigious "German Record Critics' Award (Preis der Deutschen Schalplattenkritik). A year later it was included on a list of the 50 best "Desert Island" piano recordings of all time by the German music magazine SCALA. In its 70-year history, the Penguin Guide, the world's most venerated source of classical reviews, has bestowed fewer than two dozen Rosettes on piano recordings, a distinction that eluded many of history's most famous pianists. The most recent of these was awarded to Elena Kuschnerova's all-Bach Recital (2001) in the Penguin Guide's 2003/04 issue. The team of Penguin reviewers admonished readers to "make no mistake, this disc... is altogether outstanding. Indeed it is one of the finest Bach recitals on the piano... the present recital leaves the listener feeling exhilarated and purified as only the best Bach playing can." Elena Kuschnerova was born and raised in Moscow, trained at the Central Music School and at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. She lives in Germany (Baden-Baden) and the USA (New York).