Galina Vracheva Piano   

Galina Vracheva was born in Bulgaria and began her musical education at the age of seven at the Public Conservatory in Sofia. She studied at the Moscow Conservatory for five years, and then continued her studies at the Public Conservatory of Sofia and the Academy of Music in Munich, where she also studied Composition. Professors Vera Gornostaeva, Lili Atanassova, and Ludwig Hoffmann are among her teachers.

Vracheva has won awards at international piano competitions, including the Senigallia (Italy, 1978) and the Maria Canals de Barcelona, where she was First Prizewinner (1984).

She performs throughout the world and appears regularly at international music festivals; her improvised concerto cadenzas receive special note from the public and press. In 1999, she performed a recital for the members of the United Nations in New York; the concert was a gift to the United Nations from the Bulgarian government. In September 2000, she opened the Moscow Concert Season in a performance of Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto under the baton of Vladimir Fedoseev.

Vracheva has taught at the Höchschule fur Musik in Munich and was Professor of Piano Improvisation at the Kiev Conservatory. She has been a jury member of numerous competitions, including the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and the Rachmaninov Competition in Tambov (Russia).

Presently living in Switzerland, Galina Vracheva has made recordings for both radio and television. CDs include performances of Beethoven's piano concerti with improvised cadenzas with the Chamber Orchestra of Kiev, Roman Kofman conducting, as well as Schumann's Fantasie, Op.17 and Tchaikovsky's 2nd Piano Concerto.

Reviews

"Galina Vracheva gave a performance in which she enlightened and regenerated the concept of improvisation. Accompanied by the Tchaikovsky Radio Symphony Orchestra of Moscow under Vladimir Fedoseev, Beethoven's Emperor Concerto sparkled under her fingers."

"Her insight was profound and idiomatic, and her first movement cadenza was imbued with Beethoven's color modulated by her own artistic originality. Her improvised cadenza astonished the audience with its elements of augmented tonality and stormy passages, weaving a contemporary and sonorous mosaic yet still retaining Beethoven's idiom. Her concert was a most auspicious event."

Kultura, Moscow

"Galina Vracheva reached a great pinnacle with her interpretations of the three demanding Tchaikovsky piano concerti. This diminutive, attractive, and seemingly shy virtuosa is a dynamo when tackling the impossible. The applause, it seemed, would never end."

"She immersed herself profoundly into Tchaikovsky's music, and the improvisational portions of her performance revealed the artist's imagination and originality within the context of the composer's intentions."

Tageszeitung, Pilsen, Czech Republic

"In the Beethoven Concerto, she arrived at the place where Mozart left off: originality, newness in musical thought and content. Her concert embraced a most individual sort of artistic approach, and her improvised cadenzas have Mozart's flavor in Beethoven's handwriting."

"Standing ovations, flowers, and tremendous applause were the evidence that Munich has not heard this brilliant pianist for the last time. Whoever has thought that the piano was a limited - even tedious instrument - has certainly not heard Galina Vracheva perform, or, above all, improvise. The public was moved, enthusiastic, and perplexed, lights shining in their eyes as they left the hall. It was indescribable."

St. Galler Tagblatt, Switzerland