Biography English
Bulgarian-born pianist Mirella Petrova began her musical education at the age of five at the "Professor Veselyn Stoyanov" music school in her native city of Russe. She gave her concert debut two years later with the Russe Philharmonic in a performance of Haydn’s Piano Concerto in C Major.
In 1992, Ms. Petrova moved to Dresden, where she took up her studies with Professor Detlef Kaiser at the ‘Carl Maria von Weber’ College of Music. After successfully passing exams as pianist and educator, she completed a postgraduate course in piano ‘with distinction’, and a postgraduate course in chamber music with both Professor Kaiser and Peter Bruns. She developed as an artist through international master classes with Mikhail Wosskressenski, Klaus Hellwig, Karl-Heinz Kammerling, Detlef Kraus, Peter Rosel, Elza Kolodin, Christian Zacharias, Jacques Rouvier and Lazar Berman. She also expanded her knowledge of song composition by working with Olaf Bär, Gertrud Geissler and Semyon Skigin.
Mirella Petrova has received many prizes in national and international competitions, such as the Usti nad Labem competition in the Czech Republic, the Maria Canals in Barcelona, Spain, and Konzerteum in Markopoulo, Greece. She was honored with the 1999-2000 DAAD Prize and received the Carl Maria von Weber scholarship award for music from the Art and Culture Foundation.
Ms. Petrova has performed at festivals such as The Riga Music Festival in Latvia, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and Ruhr Piano Festival in Germany, and the Apollonia Festival of Arts, Varna Summer, and March Music Days festivals in Bulgaria. Her career has been documented through numerous radio and television recordings.
Ms. Petrova has made guest appearances as a soloist under conductors such as Jörg-Peter Weigle, Naoshi Takahashi, Ivan Wulpe, and Aleksej Izmirliev. In addition to her solo concerts, Ms. Petrova has dedicated herself intensively to chamber music in a variety of areas, including piano duo, song duo, and chamber music with string instruments. She has undertaken concert tours in Greece, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Spain, Japan and Turkey.
In 2014, Ms. Petrova released a CD called “A Wagner evening in Graupa” as a soloist with the Elbland Philharmonic Orchestra in Saxony. In that same year, she played the Beethoven Triple Concerto along with Sayako Kusaka, violin, and Peter Bruns, cello. In the spring of 2015, this trio played again the Triple Concerto with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Ankara, Turkey.
In addition to her extensive concert performances, Mirella Petrova has taught piano and chamber music at the ‘Carl Maria von Weber’ College of Music since 1997. She is often invited as jury member in many national and international piano competitions.