A versatile and inquisitive musician, Elina Christova is a classical pianist at home in all genres, from early to contemporary music. She has been praised by critics for her ‘deeply considered interpretations,’ ‘facile pianism,’ and ‘sure musical instincts.’ Her affinity for lesser played music has led to innovative programming highlighting works by composers of the moment - Glass, Kapustin, O’Riley, Hiltzik, Ayres - and previously less frequently performed pieces from her native Bulgaria.

Her double CD with Alexander Scriabin’s ten piano sonatas was released in December 2020 and has since been cited by music critic Rob Challinor of Musicweb International as ‘an impressive entry into the ranks’ of previously recorded sets. Challinor further commended Elina for being ‘successful and often quite beautiful in the more lyrical sections,’ for possessing ‘all the requisite technique’ and being ‘as effective in the later sonatas as the early ones.’ In the years before recording all the published sonatas by Scriabin, Elina gave a well-received series of recitals in the US featuring the composer’s complete piano works.

In June 2021, during the worldwide celebrations of Make Music Day, Elina performed the US premiere of Hyung-ki Joo’s evocative piano piece Chandeliers at the Oculus in New York City. That same year she collaborated with jazz pianist David Childs in two concerts featuring classical and jazz standards, where she also played piano covers of Radiohead songs transcribed by pianist and composer Christopher O’Riley, and together with David a duet based on Bach’s organ Toccata and Fugue by Paul Ayres. Elina has appeared as a solo performer in all-Scriabin recitals at the World Piano Teachers Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia in 2018 and at the Fifth International Piano Festival in Havana, Cuba the year prior, and was included in the lineup of the prestigious Sofia Music Weeks festival of 2014 held annually in the Bulgarian capital.

An avid chamber musician, Elina has been a regular performer with cellist Gyorgy Kroqi at the Music for Youth concert series at the Pequot Library in Southport, CT. The duo performed an all-Russian program including Rachmaninoff’s cello sonata in 2022, and, in a later collaboration, the sonata by Chopin and Schumanns’ Fantasiestücke, among other works. In 2019 Elina performed with violinist Albert Markov as part of the Summit Music Festival and Institute at Manhattanville College, the program consisting entirely of original violin and piano compositions by the violinist himself. In 2017 Elina gave a solo and chamber recital with violinist Stanichka Dimitrova at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, where among other works they performed Ravel’s Tzigane and the violin sonata by the late Bulgarian jazz great, pianist Milcho Leviev.

Elina recorded the complete Beethoven violin sonatas with Andrew Smith as part of the Elan Duo, and the CD set released in December 2015 was received warmly by critics, the partnership described in Fanfare Magazine as ‘well matched musically,’ and rivaling ‘any number of famous performers in this repertoire.’ A sought-after adjudicator, Elina has been on the panels of the Marianne Liberatore and Audrey Thayer competitions, the Young Musicians Festival and New London Festival in Connecticut, and the Elite International Piano Competition, the Young Pianists Competition and the Rosewood Fanning Piano Competition New York, where she also participated in the Juror's Recital.



Born in Sofia, Bulgaria but raised in Vienna, Elina began her musical education at age nine. She entered the Preparatory Division at the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in the classes of Prof. Hans Graf and Prof. Imola Fonyad at eleven and as a teenager continued her education in Sofia at the Lyubomir Pipkov National Music School. Elina later graduated from both the Bachelor and Master's Programs at the Pancho Vladigerov National Music Academy under the guidance of Prof. Jenny Zaharieva. Relocating to New York in 1996 as a Fulbright Scholar, Elina has been living, working, and performing in the United States ever since. She holds a Master’s and Doctoral Degree from Manhattan School of Music where she studied with the late Dr. Solomon Mikowsky, and currently maintains a busy career as a solo performer, recording artist and pedagogue from her studio in Norwalk, CT.