About the Artists

Lora Tchekoratova

Bulgarian pianist Lora Tchekoratova has appeared as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States and Europe. At age 21 she won the Washington International Competition, where she was awarded the audience prize as well as the prize for the youngest finalist. Subsequently, Ms. Tchekoratova made her debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, performing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2.  She also made recital appearances at the Phillips Collection (broadcast over WGTS-FM) as well as in Alexandria, Chicago, Minneapolis and New York.

During the 2005/2006 season, Ms. Tchekoratova performed in New York, Maine, Florida, Alabama, as well as abroad in Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Austria.  As an active advocate for new music, Ms. Tchekoratova has premiered numerous contemporary works by American and Bulgarian composers.

Currently, she is the director of Bulgarian Concert Evenings in New York, a concert series dedicated to the presentation of music from Bulgaria. While a student at Juilliard, she appeared regularly at the Focus, Summergarden, and Piano Century Festivals at the Juilliard Theater, MoMA, and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.

From 2000-2002 she was the pianist of the New World Symphony under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas in Miami. During her tenure, she performed numerous chamber music concerts at the Lincoln Theater, Kravis Center, The Union Club in New York as well as on tours in Boston, the Hamptons, and abroad in Prague, Rome and Monte Carlo. As a chamber musician she was also a featured artist at many international festivals, including Kuhmo Nuori Musikii in Finland, Lappland Festspel in Sweden, and Sofia Music Weeks in Bulgaria.

Lora Tchekoratova began her piano studies at age four and gave her first recital five years later at the State Music School in Sofia, Bulgaria. At the age of eighteen, she continued her studies at The Juilliard School in New York City, where she received her Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees as a student of Seymour Lipkin. Her first (all Bartók) CD will be released by Gega classic in late 2006.

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