GENOVA & DIMITROV PIANO DUO
"The duo put on a public display of musical affection that was not only extraordinarily virtuosic, but also thoughtful, often deeply engaging and crackling with a current of electricity that seemed to run between the two."
- Stephen Brookes, The Washington Post
"A must-hear album (Amy Beach 2021)"
- Michael Beek, BBC Music Magazine
"A polished duo, unfailingly musical"
- Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone
The story behind the Genova & Dimitrov piano duo sounds somewhat of a fairytale: “Shortly before leaving to Korea for a solo piano competition, there was only one available rehearsal room at the Hanover University of Music and it was with two pianos. We spontaneously decided to start to play a Chopin Etude in sync. It was as if we had been given wings!”, recalled Genova and Dimitrov.
Only a few months later, at the end of 1995, the two young musicians brought about a unique sensation by winning the four major international piano duo competitions within the following two years: Munich (“ARD”), Miami (“Dranoff”), Tokyo, and Caltanissetta (“Bellini”).
Since then, Aglika Genova and Liuben Dimitrov have been one of the most sought-after piano duos internationally, celebrated both by audiences and the press alike. The duo has performed on major concert and festival stages in dozens of countries on all continents, such as the Library of Congress and the National Gallery in Washington, the Schleswig-Holstein, Rheingau, Ludwigsburg and Schwetzingen Festivals, the City Hall in Cape Town, the Herkulessaal Munich, the Liederhalle Stuttgart, the Gstaad Music Festival, MDR Music Summer, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Beethovenhalle Bonn, the Cologne Philharmonic Hall, the Passau European Music Weeks, the March Music Days Russe, the Varna Summer Festival, the Sofia Music Weeks, the La Roque d’Antheron, the Al Bustan Music Festival Beirut, Casals Hall Tokyo, Poly Theatre Beijing, Teatro Municipal Rio de Janeiro, the Ravello Festival, the Woodstock Mozart Festival, the Festival Miami, and the Chopin Piano Festival Duszniki.
The duo has also performed with many leading international orchestras and choirs under the direction of conductors like Charles Dutoit, Eiji Oue, Ari Rasilainen, Hannu Lintu, Stefan Blunier, Yuri Bashmet, John Carewe, Emil Tabakov, Alun Francis, Ulf Schirmer, Woiciech Rajski, Yordan Kamdzhalov, Robin Gritton, Radoslaw Szulc, Alexander Kalajdzic, Gabriel Feltz, Nayden Todorov, Alexander Rudin, Andreas Herrmann, and Johannes Schlaefli.
Genova & Dimitrov give masterclasses worldwide and serve as jury members of important international competitions, such as the “ARD” Music Competition in Munich. The duo was also appointed as Artistic Directors of the “Dranoff” International Two Piano Competition in Miami and leaders of Piano Studio Studies at the Hanover University of Music, which is the university they both graduated from in the postgraduate class of Vladimir Krainev.
The duo has appeared in numerous international TV and Radio broadcasts. The portrayal TV documentary movie “Etude for Two Pianos”, produced and broadcasted by the BNT Bulgarian National Television on occasion of the 20th Birthday Anniversary, is still of global interest.
Aglika Genova and Liuben Dimitrov have an impressive discography - 18 CDs that have been released by “cpo” and “Gega New”, all of which have received glowing reviews and awards by the international music media. In addition to a number of world premiere recordings, such as Victor Babin's Concerto, the complete piano duo works of Dmitri Shostakovitch, Johann Christian Bach, Muzio Clementi, and Pantcho Vladigerov, there are several recordings with orchestra that have caused a true sensation, such as the Concertos of Carl Czerny, Max Bruch, Bohuslav Martinu, Alfred Schnittke, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Robert Casadesus, Felix Mendelssohn, and Bela Bartok. Albums with works by Gershwin, Copland, and Bernstein (“America for Two”), Ravel (“Favourite Flavors”), Arensky (“Five Suites for Two Pianos”) or Liszt (“Works for Two Pianos”) are very popular in the music world.
In 2017, the Artists were nominated for the “German Record Review Best Recordings List” for their CD “Bela Bartok & Victor Babin – Concertos for Two Pianos” (“cpo”) and were awarded with the ECHO CLASSIC Prize. In 2019 they became Nominees of the 2019 OPUS CLASSIC Award for their CD “Carl Czerny & Max Bruch – Concertos for Piano Duo” (“cpo”).
Genova & Dimitrov piano duo’s recent releases “Sergei Rachmaninoff • Complete Works for Piano Duo” (recorded at Cologne Radio WDR), “AMY BEACH Complete Works for Piano Duo” (November 2021), and "Carl Reinecke • Complete Works for Two Pianos" (2022) have been showered with great reviews and recognition from the international music media.
Selection of Programmes