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 ». Pizzicato in Germany also qualified her sound as « silvery and pure » 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 Philharmonique de Radio-France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Weimar, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Brussels Philharmonic, Norddeutsche Philharmonie, Kansai Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre National de Bordeaux, Sinfonia Varsovia, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, with such leading conductors as Elim Chan, Philippe Herreweghe, Krzysztof Penderecki, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Yan Tortelier, Xian Zhang, Kevin John Edusei, 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 has performed with many wonderful musicians like 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. 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 will be released in early 2021.
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.
She plays the magnificent 1735 Carlo Bergonzi Helios on generous loan by Xavier and Joséphine Moreno.
