Marietta Petkova, a Bulgarian pianist, was born in 1968 in Rousse, Bulgaria. She began her musical education at a local conservatory, where she studied for seven years and graduated in 1986, receiving the school's Gold Medal. Following this, she spent a year at the Music Academy in Sofia, where she honed her skills under the guidance of Lili Atanassova and Gina Tabakova.

Petkova continued her studies for two years at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, studying with renowned pianist Paul Badura-Skoda. He praised her talent, stating, "Rarely have I had a student in whom intelligence, feeling and technical ability are so perfectly matched. Despite her young age, Marietta Petkova is a fully matured artist. When she performs, she is completely immersed in the music and thus capable of deeply moving her listeners, including this one."

During the 1989-1990 season, Petkova served as a 'resident artist' at The Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. In 1990, she relocated to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to study with Jan Wijn at the Sweelinck Conservatorium, graduating in 1994 with the highest possible distinction. Wijn remarked in an interview with 'Pianowereld', "Marietta Petkova is a natural born talent. When I heard her play for the first time, I thought that, in a previous life, she must have been a pianist already. The way she put her hands on the piano and treated the keys was very new for me. I had never seen anybody before with so much affinity with music and with the piano itself."

Additionally, since 1989, Petkova has studied with György Sebök in Ernen, Switzerland, who became a crucial mentor for her. She noted in 1999, "Everything which I'll learn, I'll learn from him."

Awards and Prizes

At the age of just 10, Marietta Petkova won the Grand Prix at the 1978 National Piano Competition in Bulgaria. She continued to achieve recognition in various competitions, including in Italy (Salerno 1981, Senigallia 1985, Enna 1989, Cantù 1993), Czechoslovakia (Ustinad Labem 1983: 1st Prize and 'Tibor Katai Award' at the 'Virtuosi di Pianoforte' Competition), Bulgaria (Sofia 1983, Pleven 1984), Portugal (Lisbon 1987: 'Vianna da Motta' Competition), Austria (Vienna 1988: 'Rombro Stepanow' Competition), Switzerland (Vevey 1989: 2nd place at the prestigious 'Clara Haskil' Competition), and the Netherlands (Rotterdam 1990: winner ex aequo of the Eduard Flipse Competition, winner of the Yamaha Music Foundation Europe Award 1993, 3rd Prize at the 1994 Scheveningen International Music Competition, the 1994 'Toonkunst Jubileum Prize', and the 'Helge Domp Prize'). In 1993, she was honored with the title 'Lauréate Juventus' by the European Council's 'Fondation Claude-Nicolas Ledoux' in France.

Performance Career

Marietta Petkova has performed extensively across Europe, North America, and Japan, primarily featuring solo recitals but also engaging in chamber music and performing as a soloist with various orchestras, including the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of The Netherlands, the Dutch Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, and the Kammerorchester Arcata Stuttgart.

She regularly appears in major concert halls in the Netherlands, such as the Grand Hall of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Notable venues she has performed in include the Beethoven Haus Bonn (1994), Liederhalle Stuttgart (1995), Théâtre de la Ville (1995), Salle Pleyel (1999), and Théâtre du Châtelet (2001) in Paris, the National Gallery in Washington (1995), Palacio Nuñez in Madrid (1998), Tonhalle Zürich (1998), and Salle Paderewski in Lausanne (1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2002).

Petkova has participated in numerous international festivals, including Montreux-Vevey (1989), 'Carinthischer Sommer' (1990), St. Riquier (1993), Lille (1994, 1995), 'Juventus' (1993, 1994, 1995), Dijon (1995, 1996), Rotterdam Philharmonic Philips Gergiev Festival (1996), Yokohama International Piano Festival (1997), Festival Chopin in Paris (1994, 1998), 'Piano Zomer Festival' Leeuwarden (1999), 'Festival der Zukunft' in Ernen (2000), and 'Flâneries Musicales de Champéry' (2001).