Nadejda Vlaeva, Piano

Biography

Nadejda Vlaeva’s playing has been acclaimed wherever she has appeared. Lazar Berman called her talent “God-given”; Maestro Hans Graf observed that “her musicality and the depth of her interpretation amazed me.” Arnold Steinhardt, leader of the Guarneri String Quartet, praised her as “one of those people of extraordinary ability whom we hope for but rarely see.” She has performed internationally, giving solo recitals in Bulgaria, Russia, Slovakia, Hungary, The Netherlands, Germany, England, Spain, Barbados, Canada and the United States. She has played as a soloist with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Capella Istropolitana in Slovakia, the Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Wroclaw Philharmonic, and with various other orchestras throughout the world. Ms. Vlaeva has also appeared with notable success on radio and television in several countries.

Included among her major awards are the First Prize at the Liszt competition in Lucca, Italy, the Third Prize at the International Liszt Competition in Budapest, and the Yamaha Award for the best interpretation of Brahms, in Weimar. She has worked under the close supervision of Bulgarian composer Dimiter Christov, presenting his piano music on radio and CD. Her second CD, piano music of Liszt, was released on the MSR Classics label and won the International Grand Prix "Liszt" du Disque. Previous winners include Pollini, Brendel, Kocsis, Cziffra, Bernstein, and Solti. In 2002 she recorded soundtrack music for the documentary film "In Search of Cezanne" produced by Academy Award winner Allan Miller.
Her CD, “A Treasury of Russian Romantic Piano” has garnered rave reviews in Gramophone, International Record Review, BBC Music Magazine, American Record Guide, Pianist, and on MusicWeb. Her most recent CD, Bach Transcriptions by Camille Saint-Saens and Isidor Philipp, was released by Hyperion in October 2011 and selected by BBC Music Magazine as their Instrumental Choice of the month.

The American composer Lowell Liebermann composed his Nocturne No. 9 (2006) and Variations on a Theme of Schubert (2007) for Ms. Vlaeva. She premiered the Nocturne at the "Rarities of Piano Music" Festival in Husum, Germany. In 2009, she premiered the Variations at New York's Merkin Concert Hall. She also gave tne North American Premiere of Piano Sonata No. 2 by Sergey Bortkiewicz.

Nadejda Vlaeva was born in Sofia, Bulgaria and began playing the piano at the age of five. She studied piano at the Sofia Music School, Sofia Music Academy, Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam, and the Manhattan School of Music with Antoanetta Arsova, Anton Dikov, Jan Wijn, and Ruth Laredo. She also worked closely with Lazar Berman. Ms. Vlaeva currently resides in New York where she has performed in the Carnegie Weill Recital Hall and the Rose Hall at Lincoln Center. Her website address is: www.NadejdaVlaeva.com