Liya Petrova was revealed to the international scene in 2016 when she took First Prize at the Carl Nielsen International Competition in Denmark, chaired by Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider. Two years later, she recorded the first concertos of Nielsen and Prokofiev with the Odense Symphony Orchestra and Estonian conductor Kristiina Poska for Orchid Classics. This first album earned her international acclaim from the press: London’s The Sunday Times admired her “gorgeous sound – ripe and silvery, phrasing with majestic breadth”. Pizzicato in Germany also qualified her sound as “silvery and pure”, while Gramophone praised her “exceptional tonal variety” in “a marvellous disc”. The Strad was impressed by her “natural virtuosity” while Classical Music Magazine found her interpretation of the Nielsen concerto
“staggeringly good” and “intensely lyrical”.
As soloist, Petrova has performed with orchestras such as the Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, Staatskapelle Weimar, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Brussels Philharmonic, Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Sinfonia Varsovia and Odense Symphony Orchestra, with such leading conductors as Elim Chan, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Duncan Ward, Philippe Herreweghe, Krzysztof Penderecki, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Marzena Diakun, Alexander Liebreich, Mihhail Gerts, Kristiina Poska, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Xian Zhang, Ariane Matiakh, Riccardo Minasi, Christopher Warren-Green, Michel Tabachnik and Jesús López Cobos.
Petrova plays chamber music regularly with Tchaikovsky Competition winner Alexandre Kantorow, and has performed with many wonderful musicians like Beatrice Rana, Emmanuel Pahud, Pablo Ferrández, Martha Argerich, Yuri Bashmet, Mischa Maisky, Renaud Capuçon, Augustin Dumay, James Ehnes, Nicholas Angelich, Frank Braley, Yuja Wang, Gérard Caussé, Antoine Tamestit, Bruno Philippe, Aurélien Pascal and Gautier Capuçon. She is a regular guest of international music festivals like the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rheingau Musik Festival, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival, La Folle Journée, Festival International de La Roque d’Anthéron and Rencontres Musicales d’Evian.
Petrova has been recording for the French label Mirare since 2020. In 2023. she presented her latest album Momentum 1, featuring the Walton Violin Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Duncan Ward and the Respighi Violin Sonata with pianist Adam Laloum. Her two previous albums on Mirare were a Beethoven-Barber-Britten recital album with pianist Boris Kusnezow in 2020, followed by the Beethoven Violin Concerto and Mozart’s rarely performed K271 concerto, known as No 7, with Jean-Jacques Kantorow and Sinfonia Varsovia the following year. All of her albums received unanimous praises from critics worldwide.
Petrova was born in Bulgaria into a family of musicians and studied with Augustin Dumay at Brussels’ Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, Antje Weithaas at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin and Renaud Capuçon at the Haute École de Musique in Lausanne. She now lives in Paris.
Petrova plays the magnificent 1742 “Rovelli” Guarnerius del Gesù thanks to the support of her generous sponsor.
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