Irina Zahharenkova / Piano

»The wonderful harpsichord playing of Irina Zahharenkova, her playing is rhytmic, inventive and skilful» — Dominy Clement, MusicWeb International.

Irina Zahharenkova is one of the most versatile and outstanding keyboard performers to emerge from Estonia. She has won first prizes in such major international piano competitions such as the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition (Leipzig, Germany — 2006), Alessandro Casagrande International Piano Competition (Terni, Italy — 2006), International Competition George Enescu (Bucharest, Romania — 2005), and Jaén International Piano Contest (Jaén, Spain — 2004).

Irina obtained her Master of Music degree in Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre and the Sibelius Academy in Finland. In addition to piano she has studied the harpsichord and fortepiano. As a harpsichordist Irina has been a laureate of the Prague Spring competition in the Czech Republic (2005) and as fortepianist from the Festival van Vlaanderen competition in Bruges, Belgium (2004). In 2007 she received the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship Award.

As solo pianist and harpsichordist she has given recitals at the Klavier-Festival Ruhr in Germany, Spoleto Festival in Italy, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland, Bergen International Festival in Norway and many others and appeared with the YOA Orchestra of the Americas, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre National de Lorraine, Israel Philarmonic Orchestra, Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Finlandia and others.

Irina is very active as a chamber musician as well as teaching in Estonia and Finland. Five CD’s/DVD’s have been released of Irina since 2010.

See also a video made by the Estonian Music Development Centre in 2012 in http://www.estonianmusic.ee/projekt/klassikalise-muusika-promovideod/interpreedid/zahharenkova.