Currently on the conservatory faculty at the National Music Academy “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” in Sofia.
Bulgarian pianist Kaliya Kalcheva “has the ability to see familiar works from a new light, thanks to her imagination, intelligence, and sensitivity”, as claimed by Matti Raekallio. Since winning her first piano competition at the age of 6, Kaliya holds 16 first prizes from international competitions, the EMCY prize, and a Grand Prix at the 13th Evangelia Tjiarri International Piano Competition. In 2014 Kaliya was the youngest recipient of an honorary diploma from the Ministry of Culture in Bulgaria for her high artistic achievements. Recognitions include Bronze Medal at the Premio Amadeus 2022 in Lazise, Italy, Second prize and Best Interpreter of J.S. Bach at the 5th Vigo International Piano Competition, the Grand prize at the International Music Competition Borovets 2021, as well as 6th prize and the Federico Mompou prize at the 2021 Maria Canals competition. Kaliya has performed in major venues, such as the Center of Fine Arts in Brussels and Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall where she played Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the
Juilliard Orchestra under maestro Karina Canellakis, as Juilliard’s concerto competition winner.
Kaliya’s debut performance with orchestra was in Sofia at age 9 with Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C Major K 415, followed by a national orchestral tour of Bulgaria. Since then, she has been a frequent soloist of many orchestras, such as the National Orchestra of Belgium, Bulgarian National Radio Symphony, Sofia Philharmonic and Classic FM Radio Orchestra. Since performing her first solo recital at age 9, Kaliya has given recitals in the United States, Belgium, Germany, Bulgaria, Luxembourg and Russia. She has had the honor to perform for many influential pianists, including Nicholas Angelich, Bernd Glemser, Derek Han, Leonid Margarius, Claudio Martinez-Mehner, Robert McDonald, Menahem Pressler, and Arie Vardi.
An active chamber musician, Kaliya is a prizewinner of the Fuchs Chamber Music Competition and the Balsam Duo Competition. She has been heard in chamber music masterclasses of Clive Greensmith, Ivry Gitlis, Frans Helmerson and Anton Nel, and has attended the Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Music Workshop, Summer Academy Orpheus in Vienna, and Musica Mundi in Brussels, where she also served as a Young Faculty member in chamber music in 2017 and 2018. Upon invitation, Kaliya has participated several times in the festival Moscow Meets Friends, hosted by the Vladimir Spivakov Foundation.
A graduate of the National Music School “Lyubomir Pipkov” in Sofia in the class of Milena Mollova, Kaliya completed her Bachelor of Music at Manhattan School of Music, where she was awarded the Harold Bauer Commencement Award for “outstanding accomplishment, cooperation and promise.” She received her Master of Music from The Juilliard School, under the guidance of Stephen Hough and Matti Raekallio, where she was a Gina Bachauer Grant recipient for 2020/2021, among other scholarships. As a Gluck Community Service Fellow, she gave 12 interactive online performances in the 2020-21 academic year to metropolitan hospitals, nursing homes, and alternative care facilities. Kaliya is a proud scholar of the Thanks to Scandinavia foundation with the Victor Borge music scholarship, class of 2019 and 2020.