Photo: Stefan Bremer

Irina Zahharenkova

Irina Zahharenkova’s success in international competitions has been staggering. In 2005 alone she won a prize in the Epinal Piano Competition in France, the 'Prague Spring’ International Harpsichord Competition, the Enescu International Piano Competition in Romania and the Geneva International Piano Competition. The following year she won the Alessandro Casagrande Competition in Italy and the Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Germany. Even before that she had met with success, in 2004 winning the Premio Jaén International Piano Competition in Spain, in which she also won the audience prize. Zahharenkova now lives in Finland, having graduated in piano and harpsichord from the Estonian Academy of Music in 2000. Her teachers included Lilian Semper and Maris Valk-Falk.