Marietta Petkova, Marco Boni Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Sonatas K 457 570 Piano Concerto K 271

Bulgarian pianist, born in 1968 in Rousse, Bulgaria. After a period of seven years at the local conservatory (graduating in 1986 with the school's Gold Medal) she spent a year at the Music Academy Sofia, studying with Lili Atanassova and Gina Tabakova. She then studied for two years at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna with Paul Badura-Skoda, who wrote about her: "Rarely have I had a student in whom intelligence, feeling and technical ability are so perfectly matched. Despite her young age Marietta Petkova is a fully matured artist. When she performs she is completely immersed in the music and thus capable of deeply moving her listeners, including this one." In 1989/90 she was 'resident artist' at The Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. In 1990 she decided to live in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where she studied with Jan Wijn at the Sweelinck Conservatorium, graduating in 1994 with the highest possible distinction. Jan Wijn (in an interview in 'Pianowereld'): "Marietta Petkova is a natural born talent. When I heard her play for the first time, I thought that, in a previous life, she must have been a pianist already. The way she put her hands on the piano and treated the keys was very new for me. I had never seen anybody before with so much affinity with music and with the piano itself." Meanwhile, since 1989, Marietta Petkova took lessons with György Sebök (1922-1999) as well, especially in Ernen (Switzerland). Sebök turned out to be an invaluable master for her. "Everything which I'll learn, I'll learn from him

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