Liya Petrova

The Bulgarian-born violinist Liya Petrova is a First Prize Winner at the International Carl Nielsen Violin Competition 2016 in Denmark. She is praised for her “Effortless virtuosity” (The Strad), “Exceptional tonal variety “ (Gramophone) and “Gorgeous sound – ripe and silvery; Phrasing with majestic breadth” (The Times).

Liya Petrova was revealed to the international scene in 2016 when she took First Prize at the Carl Nielsen competition in Denmark, chaired by Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider. Two years later, she recorded the Nielsen and Prokofiev’s first concertos with the Odense Philharmonic and Estonian conductor Kristiina Poska for Orchid Classics. This first album earned her international acclaim from the press : London’s Sunday Times admired her « gorgeous sound – ripe and silvery, phrasing with majestic breadth » while Gramophone praised her « exceptional tonal variety » in « a marvelous disc ». The Strad was impressed by her « natural virtuosity » while Classical Music magazine finds her interpretation of the Nielsen concerto « staggeringly good » and « intensely lyrical ».

As a soloist, Petrova is the guest of orchestras such as the Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de RadioFrance, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Antwerp Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, Staatskapelle Weimar, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Brussels Philharmonic, Norddeutsche Philharmonie, Kansai Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre National de Bordeaux, Orchestre National des Pays de Loire, Sinfonia Varsovia, Odense Symphony Orchestra, with such leading conductors as Elim Chan, Stanislas Kochanovsky, Duncan Ward, Philippe Herreweghe, Krzysztof Penderecki, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Marzena Diakun, Alexander Liebreich, Mihhail Gerts, Kristiina Poska, Yan Tortelier, Xian Zhang, Ariane Matiakh, Roberto Minasi, Christopher Warren-Green, Michel Tabachnik or Jesús López Cobos.

She plays chamber music regularly with French Tchaikovsky competition 1st prize winner Alexandre Kantorow and performs with many wonderful musicians like Beatrice Rana, Emmanuel Pahud, Pablo Ferrandez, Martha Argerich, Yuri Bashmet, Mischa Maisky, Renaud Capuçon, Augustin Dumay, James Ehnes, Nicholas Angelich, Frank Braley, Yuja Wang, Antoine Tamestit, Bruno Philippe, Aurélien Pascal and Gautier Capuçon. Petrova is a regular guest of chamber music festivals like the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele, Rheingau Festival, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival, La Folle Journée, La Roque d’Anthéron International Festival and the Rencontres Musicales d’Evian.

In January 2020, Liya released the first album of a new collaboration with the Mirare label, a Beethoven-Barber-Britten recital album with pianist Boris Kusnezow. A second disc featuring the Beethoven violin concerto and Mozart’s rarely performed K 271 concerto, known as n° 7, with Jean-Jacques Kantorow and the Sinfonia Varsovia was released in 2021.
Before, Liya had released a Nielsen and Prokofiev album on Orchid Classics with the Odense Symphony Orchestra and Kristiina Poska. All of her albums received unanimous praises from critics worldwide. Liya Petrova was born in Bulgaria into a family of musicians and studied with Augustin Dumay at Brussels’ Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth, Antje Weithaas at the Hochschule für Musik Hans Eisler Berlin and Renaud Capuçon at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Lausanne.

She now lives in Paris, and plays the Rovelli, a magnificent instrument made in Cremona in 1742 by Guarneri Del Gesù, on generous loan by private sponsors.