Featured as BBC Music Magazine’s Rising Star in June 2011, Alexandra Dariescu is an outstanding communicator, hugely popular with audiences.
Selected by Young Classical Artists Trust in 2008, Alexandra was a Laureate at the Verbier Festival Academy where she won the CUBS Bank Verbier Festival & Academy Prize. She went on to win the Guildhall Wigmore Hall Prize and the Romanian Ambassador‘s prize for her outstanding contribution to promoting Romania’s image in the UK.
Highlights in Alexandra’s 2011/2012 season include her debut at the Carnegie Hall in New York, where she will be joining András Schiff during his Perspectives residency. Alexandra will also perform three times with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing Beethoven’s Emperor concerto in London at the Barbican Centre, Grieg piano concerto at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge and Rachmaninov no 2 in Kent. Concerto appearances also include Shostakovich piano concerto No. 1 with the Orchestra of St Paul’s at the Southbank Centre in London, Tchaikovsky piano concerto No. 1 with the EMG Symphony and Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra, Brahms piano concerto No. 1 with Norwich Symphony Orchestra and Rachmaninov piano concerto No. 2 with York Symphony Orchestra. She will also perform the Elgar Piano Quintet together with the Elias String Quartet as well as tour the Channel Islands playing an exciting recital programme.
Alexandra is the first pianist to be mentored by Imogen Cooper through the Royal Philharmonic Society/YCAT Philip Langridge Mentoring Scheme. This year, Alexandra will give the world premiere of the new piano concerto written for her by the award-winning composer Emily Howard with the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra on their 60th anniversary season.
Over the last year, Alexandra has appeared as soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia ViVA, Northern Chamber Orchestra, the Nottingham Philharmonic and York Symphony Orchestras. She also performed Mozart’s Concerto K.414 with the European Union Chamber Orchestra in Germany and Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No. 1 at St. John’s Smith Square in London. Alexandra appeared in solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Barbican, Nottingham International Piano Series, Leeds International Series, Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, the Bath, Leicester, Ribble Valley, Ryedale, Budleigh Salterton, Lichfield, Exeter International Festivals and City of London Festival. Alexandra toured Argentina and gave a recital at the Geneva International Summer Festival and Academy in Switzerland where she also joined the faculty to give masterclasses. Committed to chamber music, Alexandra has collaborated with the Belcea Quartet and Sacconi Quartet at Wigmore Hall. She appeared with the Idomeneo String Quartet at the City of London Festival and performed in recitals with violinist Alina Ibragimova.
Alexandra made her UK debut at Bridgewater Hall in the 2006 Piano Festival with the RNCM Chamber Orchestra conducted by André de Ridder which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. She has also appeared in BBC Radio 3 In Tune with Sean Rafferty as well as Classic FM, radio and television stations across Romania, Manx Radio, Isle of Man and Nevada Radio in California. In 2008, Alexandra won the prestigious Prix Maurice Ravel at the Academie Internationale de Musique Ravel in France, returning to give a recital at the Ravel International Festival in 2009.
Born in Romania, Alexandra Dariescu studied in Iasi, Romania, Pocklington School in Yorkshire and the Royal Northern College of Music where her teachers included Nelson Goerner, Mark Ray, Alexander Melnikov and Dina Parakhina. Alexandra graduated from RNCM in 2008 with distinction. During her studies, Alexandra was supported in full by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and she was awarded the RNCM Gold Medal, Chopin Prize, Recital Prize and Peter Donohoe Prize. Alexandra graduated with distinction holding a Masters’ of Performance degree from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where she studied with Ronan O'Hora. She was awarded the GSMD Piano Fellowship for 2010/2011.
Alexandra is an affiliated artist with the Romanian Cultural Institute in London whom she is extremely grateful for their continued support.
