Natasha Vlassenko studied in the Central School of Music with Eleonora Musaelyan. She graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory under the famous pianist and teacher Jakob Flier. After his passing away she continued her postgraduate studies with professor Lev Vlassenko (Flier’s pupil). “Natural artistic gift, freedom on the stage, deep emotional feeling, soft lyrical charm” – that is how Jakob Flier characterized her playing.
In 1977 being a student of Moscow Conservatory she became laureate of Beethoven international piano competition in Vienna, in 1985 – laureate of the Busoni international piano competition in Bolzano.
After finishing postgraduate studies Natasha Vlassenko started concertizing. She performed and gave masterclasses in Russia, Italy, Germany, Austria, Japan, New Zealand, China, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Singapore. She has played under the batons of Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Karl Österreicher, Karl Martin, Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Verbitsky, Richard Hickox and others.
Foreign press characterized her as “an outstanding pianist” noting “impeccable taste, beautiful sound, sense of dynamics an unmistakable feeling of ensemble”. “The pianist expresses infinite poetic beauty, paints masterfully melodic details, and presents technical difficulties with great clarity, wonderful breadth and flexibility of sound” – in this way a German critic writes about Natasha Vlassenko’s playing.
Natasha Vlassenko commenced her pedagogic activities as a piano teacher in the Central School of Music. At present, she resides in Australia. She is Head of the Keyboard chair at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University. Many of her students have become prizewinners of national and international competitions and professors in Music High Schools in the USA, Great Britain, Australia and other countries.
She was jury member of International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna, took part in the Hamamatsu International Piano Academy (Japan).
In 1999 Natasha Vlassenko became one of the founders and artistic directors of Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition in Brisbane. It is the biggest national piano competition in Australia.
Natasha Vlassenko has recorded a number of CDs in Russia, German, and Australia.