Irina Georgieva, Pianist
Swiss-Bulgarian pianist Irina Georgieva performs as a soloist and chamber musician on international stages across Europe, Asia and South America.
Her concert career has taken her to venues including Wigmore Hall in London, Vienna Musikverein, Berlin Philharmonie, Tonhalle Zurich, KKL in Lucerne, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Palau de la Música in Barcelona, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Konzerthaus Karlsruhe, Konzerthaus Freiburg, Kurhaus Wiesbaden, Casino Bern and Stadtcasino Basel.
As a soloist, she has appeared with over fifteen renowned orchestras, cooperating with conductors such as Ivor Bolton, Mario Venzago, Stefan Lano, Pablo González, Sascha Goetzel, Michal Nesterowicz and Juri Gilbo.
Irina has a particular liking for large-scale, highly virtuosic works. Her repertoire comprises more than twenty piano concertos, including works by Schumann, Tschaikowsky, Ravel and Gershwin, which she performs on a regular basis. An important focus is on Beethoven’s five piano concertos and on Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos; almost the entirety of Rachmaninoff’s piano works is found in Irina’s repertoire. Her penchant for major pianistic challenges is also evident in her solo repertoire, for example in Ravel’s ‘Gaspard de la nuit’ and Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’.
Her playing has been characterised as «of breakneck virtuosity»; it is precisely in her interpretations of the most technically demanding works that critics emphasise clarity, nuance and distinctive narrative structure.
Composer Sofia Gubaidulina praised Irina’s ‘richness of timbre, her musical power, the depth of her artistic vision and her impeccable sense of form’.
Marina Kapatsinskaya, Rudolf Buchbinder and Lazar Berman were instrumental in shaping Irina’s artistic development. After winning the Steinway Competition in Berlin, Georgieva was invited by Buchbinder to join his masterclass at the Basel Academy of Music; their close collaboration lasted for seven years. From Berman, she received further important artistic inspiration.
Irina’s discography contains solo, chamber music and orchestral recordings. Prospero Classical released her recording of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and the ‘Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini’ with the Basel Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Pablo González and Sascha Goetzel. The recording was nominated for the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA).
In her current solo project, ‘Paradise Lost’, Irina devotes herself to a complete performance of Rachmaninoff’s Études-tableaux, op. 33 and op. 39. Regarding the individual ‘pictures’ as parts of a larger cycle, she explores the musical, conceptual and structural connections that emerge when experiencing the works as a whole.
Alongside her concert career, Irina is deeply committed to supporting young musicians. She is the founder and artistic director of PIANO TALENTS, launched the Franz Schubert Piano Competition for children and young musicians, and serves continually as a jury member and guest lecturer.
Competitions & Awards
My piano and me
An almost impossible love story
I was only 5 when I discovered my love for the piano. My mother used to go a lot to the opera and concerts back then. One day, she decided that I was old enough to accompany her. I enthusiastically agreed, and a few hours later, I was sitting in a concert hall. I will never forget the moment when the pianist struck the first keys. Because that was the moment when I knew what I wanted to become: a pianist. This wish was almost unreachable, though. In the 1980s, there didn’t exist many pianos in Bulgaria. And the few that did exist were incredibly expensive. The situation seemed hopeless to me. Although I couldn't stop dreaming about a future as a pianist, Ididn't tell anyone about it – until that night: Once again, my thoughts about playing the piano kept me awake.But unlike the weeks and months before, I suddenly realized that things couldn’t go on like this.So, I gathered all my courage, woke up my mother, and told her about my most ardent desire. When I remember my home in Sofia, I always hear the sound of women’s voices: both grandmas, my mother, my sister, me – we used to sing all the time. My sister was even in the radio choir, what, in those days, was an incredible honor.Still, we were not a family of musicians.The only instrument we had in our house was my grandfather’s violin. Maybe that’s the reason why my parents considered my nocturnal eruption as something special. They seemed to sense how incredibly important it was for me to learn to play the piano. Therefore, they tried the seemingly impossible: They did everything they could to get me a piano, even one of the German brand “Zimmermann”. In the end, it was my grandfather who, for a week, stood in line in front of a music store that only sold Russian pianos.Nonetheless, at the end of that week, he came home with a “Zimmermann”. Of course, my family paid way too much for it. For me, however, my greatest wish became true, and even today I’m incredibly grateful for it. When, thanks to a scholarship from the Gerber-ten Bosch foundation, I came to Switzerland in 2001to work with the famous concert pianist Rudolf Buchbinder, my precious piano stayed in Sofia. There it is until this day. My home is Basel now. But thanks to my “Zimmermann”, I know that music arising from love has the power to overcome any boundaries.
