Aglika Genova

A chance allocation of the only free two-piano room at the Hanover Musikhochschule put Aglika Genova next to Liuben Dimitrov; they read through a Chopin étude together and have played as a duo ever since. Trained first in Sofia, Genova had come to Hanover to study with Vladimir Krainev. Between 1995 and 1997 the new partnership took the Bellini competition in Caltanissetta, the ARD in Munich, the Tokyo Piano Duo Competition and the Dranoff in Miami. Their recordings for cpo include the complete piano-duo Shostakovich, the complete four-hand Johann Christian Bach, Clementi's two-piano sonatas, and duo music by Pancho Vladigerov. An ECHO Klassik and a Choc de Classica followed. Genova plays both at two pianos and four hands, in repertoire running from the eighteenth century to new music, and has appeared at the Library of Congress, the Konzerthaus Berlin and Casals Hall in Tokyo. Since 2009 she and Dimitrov have led the piano-duo class at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media; they also direct the Dranoff competition that once crowned them. Their discs have appeared on cpo and Gega New, and the competitions fall in 1995 at Caltanissetta, 1996 in Munich and Tokyo and 1997 in Miami. She and Dimitrov graduated from the Sofia academy in the class of Julia and Konstantin Ganevi before the specialisation with Vladimir Krainev, to whose memory they dedicated the Arensky suites, and their concerto recordings include Martinů and Schnittke with Eiji Oue, French repertoire with Alun Francis and Mendelssohn with Ulf Schirmer. They have judged the ARD competition since 2005 and served on the Dranoff jury in 2008, became artistic directors of the Dranoff competition in 2010, founded the Junge Musikelite series in Auetal and the Klavier im Doppelpack forum, the latter in 2011. Their careers have linked Hanover, Miami and Sofia.