Liya Petrova
Petrova’s combination of fortitude and sensitivity has brought her competition victories in Germany, Switzerland, Croatia and Denmark. She was awarded First Prize at the 2016 Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition where she was praised by The Strad for the ‘iron will’ she brought to Nielsen’s concerto and the ‘command’ which she displayed in Tchaikovsky’s.

As a soloist, Liya has performed with the Luxembourg, Antwerp, Monte-Carlo and Kansai Philharmonic Orchestras, the Munich and Lausanne Chamber Orchestras, the Orchestre National de Montpellier, the Staatskapelle Weimar and the KlassikPhilharmonie Hamburg.

In 2016 Liya was invited to appear at the concert series Martha Argerich and Friends for the second time. As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with Argerich and with Yuri Bashmet, Mischa Maisky, Renaud Capuçon, James Ehnes, Nicholas Angelich, Yuja Wang, Antoine Tamestit and others. She has made extensive festival appearances in Germany and France.

Liya was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. She studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Rostock with Petru Munteanu, with Augustin Dumay at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Brussels, with Antje Weithaas at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin and with Renaud Capuçon at the Haute École Musique in Lausanne. She is a laureate of the Tibor Varga and Louis Spohr Competitions and has been admitted as a soloist of the Deutscher Musikrat.