Yllka Istrefi, Piano

Biography

Yllka Istrefi is a pianist from Kosovo currently living and working in London. She was brought up both in Kosovo and Macedonia and maintains strong links with both countries going back for performances regularly.

Yllka Istrefi came to London in 2001 to study with Benjamin Kaplan. She has also completed Masters Degree in Advanced Piano Performance at the Royal College of Music studying with Vanessa Latarche.

She is a recipient of a scholarship by Albanian Foundation of Scholarships in Macedonia and of Kathleen & Margery Eliot award.

Yllka Istrefi has appeared in numerous recitals and concerto performances in Kosovo, Macedonia, England, Japan, USA, Denmark, Norway, Italy and Israel.

She made a USA debut performing at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. which was broadcast live on the Internet.

Her growing reputation as an exciting pianist has led to her being invited at many major festivals, and has already performed at the Ohrid Summer Festival in Macedonia, Chelsea Schubert Festival, Mozart Piano Sonata Festival, Transcendent Festival at the Royal College of Music in London and regularly performs at the Music Festival of the Nations by the Cultural Association Tempietto, in Rome, Italy. In May last year, she gave the closing concert at the ReMusica Festival in Kosovo.

This year she has given the opening concert at the Bosendorfer Concert and performed Grieg’s Piano Concerto with Tudor Orchestra in London.

In Macedonia she has performed Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the Macedonian Philharmonic.

Her performances have been broadcast on TV in Kosovo and Macedonia and in London on BBC Worldservice.

http://yllka.com/