Elena Vorotko was born in Togliatti, Russia in 1980. Her mother was her first teacher; by the age of nine she had won several regional competitions and went on performing at international festivals in Russia, Germany and Spain. She also studied with Natalia Fish at the Central Music School in Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia. At 16 she moved to London and studied with Tatiana Sarkissova at The Purcell School of Music and with Christopher Elton at The Royal Academy of Music. Other formative influences were Boris Berman, Alexander Satz, Kenneth Gilbert, Vladimir Spivakov, Malcolm Bilson, Pierre-Lauren Aimard, Menno Van Delft and Noretta Conci.
As a child, Elena has received support from The New Names Charitable foundation and the Spivakov and Krainev Charitable Foundations. A winner of numerous competition she performed in Europe, Russia, South Africa and Japan. Among prizes and scholarships she has won the Alfred Brendel Award and the Harriet Cohen Bach Prize. A highlight of her career was a performance for HRH Prince Charles at The Purcell School of Music in London.
In 2005 she was chosen by the Keyboard Charitable Trust to give recitals in the UK, Germany, Italy, South and North America. In 2006 she won Third Prize at the XVth J. S. Bach International Competition in Leipzig. Her debut at the Park Lane New Year Series 2006 at the Purcell Room was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and won her critical acclaim. She has also performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Cadogan Hall, St James’s Piccadilly and St Martin-in-the-Fields.
Pursuing her interest in historically-informed performance, in 2010 she completed a PhD entitled ‘Realising Interpretative Traditions in J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier’ under the direction of Roy Howat and Neil Heyde at the Royal Academy of Music. In the course of this research she has studied harpsichord with Virginia Black and clavichord with Terence Charlston and acquired a thorough practical knowledge of historical fortepianos. She is now a trustee and an artistic director The Keyboard Charitable Trust for young professional musicians and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2016 Elena became an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.
’Vorotko’s forceful fingers uncovered music of steel strength and crystalline beauty’ – The Times ‘Vorotko’s range of tonal colour was enormous, as were the intense swings in emotional content – achieved through sheer technical virtuosity and an iron grip on dynamics and phrasing.’ – Musical Source
