Ralitsa Petrova

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Ralitsa Penkova is an award-winning pianist known for her captivating performances of the music of Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. During her training in her home country of Bulgaria, she was awarded first prizes at many international piano competitions, including the Steinway Förderpreis Piano Competition, Franz Schubert International Piano Competition and the Pancho Vladigerov International Piano Competition. Ralitsa also obtained scholarships for masterclasses with renowned concert pianists Dmitri Bashkirov, Georg Friedrich Schenk, Paul Badura-Skoda, Adolfo Barabino and others. She studied with Prof. Patrick O’Byrne in Bremen, Germany, where she graduated from a Bachelors in Music with distinction. In 2024 she graduated with distinction from her Masters Degree in Piano Performance from the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, Belgium where she studied with Prof. Sergei Edelman.

 

Ralitsa has always been in demand as a soloist and chamber musician. She has been a regular performer with the Symphony Orchestra Ruse in Bulgaria (playing concertos by J.S. Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns and Shostakovich), the Fěte de la Musique Festival in Bremen, Steinway Hall in Hamburg, Vilalte Music Festival in southern France, and the Harmonices Mundi, Sant’ Appolinare and Capraia music festivals in Italy.

 

Ralitsa became established as a soloist in the UK when she moved to Sussex in 2016. She gives regular recitals at Hammerwood House where she plays Beethoven, Chopin and Mendelssohn on 19th century instruments tuned to historical temperaments. She has also been a regular performer at Emerson College and concert venues across Sussex, as well as right across the UK, from the Anne French Hall on Guernsey to Newton Dee in Aberdeen. She is currently preparing repertoire for a new concert series, including both Chopin concertos, Rachmaninoff’s Etudes-Tableaux and Beethoven’s last three sonatas.

 

Alexander Ling

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Alexander Edward Ling (born in the south of England in 1994) is a composer and pianist. His church music has been performed in churches across London as part of the London Festival for Contemporary Church Music 2023. In the past year Alexander has also set poems by John Masefield and Walter de la Mare; his setting of the poem Snow was awarded first prize in composition by the Association of English Singers and Speakers. Alexander’s experience as an orchestrator and arranger has seen him work alongside Terry Davies, Laura Jurd, Ben Corrigan, Robert Ames, the London Contemporary Orchestra and Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures to name a few.

 

Alexander is also Assistant Director of Music at St. John the Baptist Church in Catford, where he plays organ and conducts the choir.

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In April 2023, Alexander walked the 100 mile South Downs Way in memory of his music teacher Martin Read who died in 2012. Alexander is a trustee of the Martin Read Foundation charity.