She made her debut in Saint Petersburg in 1874 attracting rave reviews and the artistic admiration of both Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Franz Liszt, particularly for her effortless virtuosity and singing tone.

[2] In 1877, she heard the playing of Fanny Bloomfield and advised her to train under Leszetycki, whom Yesipova went on to marry in 1880, becoming his second wife, and (after they had two children, a daughter, Theresa, who became a well-known singer and teacher, and a son Robert) divorced in 1892.

[3] In the Summer of 1880 she gave a number of concerts in London (Covent Garden) and Lisbon, where she had a very warm reception.

Among her students were Sergei Prokofiev, Leff Pouishnoff, Sergei Tarnowsky, Maria Yudina, Leonid Kreutzer, Isabelle Vengerova, Anastasia Virsaladze, Leo Ornstein, Isidor Achron, Thomas de Hartmann, and Alexander Borovsky (Borowsky).

This is one of a series of c. 200 cylinders recorded by Block in Russia in the 1890s and believed to be lost, until they were relocated at Pushkin House in Saint Petersburg and published for the first time in 2008.