Elena Lyalina began her musical training at the age of six. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance from the University of Georgia and Master of Music degrees from the University of Northern Iowa and Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory (Russia). Her major teachers include Evgeny Rivkin, Dmitri Vorobiev, Valery Starynin, and Irina Bogdanova. In the summer of 2017, Elena attended the International Summer Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg under the instruction of Dominique Merlet. She has also participated in master classes with such renowned musicians as Michel Beroff, Nelson Delle-Vigne Fabbri, Philippe Entremont, Wu Han, Vladimir Krainev, Jerome Lowenthal, and Dina Yoffe.
Elena is a prize winner of the University of Georgia Concerto Competition (Athens, GA), the Pro Mozart Society Competition (Atlanta), two National Chamber Competitions in Syzran and Volgograd (Russia), and the Samara Regional Piano Competition (Russia). She also received the Sigma Alpha Iota Jan Fowler Cross Scholarship award, Calhoun Piano Scholarship award, and an Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the Hugh Hodgson School of Music at the University of Georgia. In the summer of 2019, Elena worked as a piano faculty member at the Heifetz International Music Institute. Additionally, she has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in Belgium, Greece, France, Italy, and Portugal."