Irina Zahharenkova

IRINA ZAHHARENKOVA began playing the piano at the age of four under the guidance of her mother. She continued her studies at Tallinn Georg Ots Music School (prof. Mare Ots) and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (piano with prof. Lilian Semper and harpsichord with prof. Maris Valk-Falk), where she completed her master's studies in 2003 (with prof. L. Semper). Her studies continued at EAMT's doctoral program from 2003 to 2011. She earned her master's degree from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in 2010 (under prof. HuiYing Liu-Tawaststjerna). Zahharenkova has participated in masterclasses by renowned pianists (S. Kovachevich, A. Hewitt, A. Schiff, V. Merzhanov, H. Dreyfus, P. Hantaï, C. Stembridge, P. Vapavuori, among others) and has won top prizes in international competitions such as the M. Čiurlionis Competition (Lithuania, 2003), "Premio Jaén" Competition (Spain, 2004), "Van Vlaanderen" Fortepiano Competition in Bruges (Belgium, 2004), Epinal Competition (France, 2004), "Praha Spring" Harpsichord Competition (Czech Republic, 2005), George Enescu Piano Competition (Romania, 2005), Geneva Competition (Switzerland, 2005), Alessandro Casagrande Competition (Italy, 2006), J. S. Bach Piano Competition in Leipzig (Germany, 2006), Villa-Lobos Competition (Brazil, 2006), and A. Rubinstein Pianists' Competition (Israel, 2008). She has performed at international festivals in Italy, Germany, Finland, Norway, including the prestigious Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Eivere Piano Festival, and Tallinn Chamber Music Festival, where she is consistently invited.