“A fascinating artist!” Donald Rosenberg, Cleveland Plain Dealer

Born in Bulgaria, Maria Martinova began playing the piano, inspired by her family’s rich musical heritage. She followed her early training at the Varna National School of Music, prior to being accepted to the Bulgarian National Academy of Music. She then attended the Juilliard School as a recipient of the prestigious and rarely awarded Vladimir Horowitz Scholarship. After completing her studies there, Maria continued to perfect herself at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She was under the guidance of artists and pedagogues such as Alexis Weissenberg, Alexander Toradze, Joseph Kalichstein, Yoheved “Veda” Kaplinsky, Hamish Milne, Maria Curcio, Peter Feuchtwanger, and Samuel Sanders. She places great importance on education, serving as a faculty member of the Royal Higher Institute of Music and Pedagogy in Namur.

A multiple competition winner, Maria has performed in some of the most prestigious venues in Europe and beyond. As a multifaceted performer - in a recital, as a soloist with orchestra or as the passionate chamber musician she is - her engagements have taken her to Amsterdam Concertgebouw, De Doelen, Bozar, Flagey, the Barbican, St. Martin-in-the Fields, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Wiener Recital Hall, Jahrhundert Halle, Wiener Saal, Alice Tully Hall, ‘Bulgaria’ Hall, Studio 1 of the Bulgarian National Radio. A daring artist, she has also established herself as one of the most talked-about names on the international contemporary tango scene as the founder and artistic director of ensemble TANGUARDA.

“…wondrously played by Maria Martinova” Gramophone

Maria has crossed frontiers, both of countries and genres, always following her artistic credo. Profoundly inspired by theatre and dance, she is strongly driven by her intrinsic need to tell the audience a story. Passionate about recording, she is as also featured as a producer on bigger part of her albums. Her discography includes recordings for EMI Records, Delphian Records, LP Classics, the Bulgarian National Radio, and Rubicon Classics. Maria is a voting member of the GRAMMY Recording Academy and the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation and Recording Academy .

“…a tour de force of devilish technical mastery” International Piano Magazine

“When we hear about the pianist Маria Маrtinovа the expectation is already clear – for something captivating, еmotional, sonorous. There is no way that listening to her even only once you will forget her or confuse her with someone else. She is categorical.” Dnes.bg

"She gets right to the heart of...Ravel’s inspiration and she does so with a display of absolutely fearless virtuosity…Her larger than life Ravel stripped away my somewhat jaded preconceptions of having heard it all before. Hers is a huge musical personality…”
MusicWeb International