Biography

Pianist Lily Petrova has appeared at leading venues including Cadogan Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Southbank Centre, Steinway Hall and Bulgaria Hall. A frequent performer at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute, her appearances have included events welcoming the Bulgarian Cultural Minister. As a concert pianist, chamber musician, curator and educator, Lily’s artistic voice is shaped by her interest in cross-cultural dialogue and interdisciplinary performance. Upcoming engagements include her Wigmore Hall solo recital debut in February 2026 and a performance at Leighton House.

Internationally, Lily has performed throughout Europe and appeared at festivals such as Piano Extravaganza (Bulgaria), the Bushey Festival-where she performed Poulenc’s Two-Piano Concerto-and the Royal Academy of Music Summer Piano Festival, taking part in the first complete performance of Kurtág’s Játékok, an all-day project of nearly ten hours of music. She has received mentorship from Tabea Zimmermann, Dmitry Alexeev, Imogen Cooper, and Steven Osborne, and has worked in chamber settings with Adrian Brendel and Nicola Eimer. She has also performed with the Kaleidoscope Collective.

Lily’s interdisciplinary work includes collaborations with visual artist Kathy Hinde, performing audiovisual programmes that integrate live music with her own projected visuals. She has also improvised live to silent film and continues to expand her performance practice through multimedia projects.

In 2024, Lily was appointed Director of the Maria Vraka Music Academy, where she also teaches. Under her leadership, the Academy has doubled in size, leading to the creation of the Maria Vraka Foundation in 2025, of which she is a co-founder and trustee. The foundation’s mission is to make music education accessible to all and to support emerging artists. Find out more here.

A prize-winning artist, she received the Royal Academy of Music’s Franz Reizenstein Prize for Outstanding Achievement and has won several international competitions, most recently the Jacob Barnes Award, the Pietro Argento Competition (Italy), and the Springboard Festival Concerto Competition, leading to a performance of Arensky’s Fantasiawith the BYO under Andrew Sherwood.

Alongside her solo work, Lily is an active chamber musician. She performs with violinist Takanori Okamoto as Duo de Compostela, winners of the Royal Academy of Music Strings and Piano Duo Prize; they embark on their first UK tour in summer 2026. Find out more here. She is also a founding member of the contemporary and experimental Flux Ensemble.

Lily is currently pursuing her postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Joanna MacGregor CBE as a Leverhulme Scholar.