Irina Chirkova

BM, MM, Cello Performance, The Boston Conservatory/ Studied with Rhonda Rider and Andrew Mark/ Master classes with Tokyo String Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma, Norman Fischer, Timothy Eddy, Andor Toth, Bernard Greenhouse, and Aldo Parisot. Born In Bulgaria, Ms. Chirkova has been playing the cello since the age of five. From the age of six through nineteen she had studied at Sofia Music School. In 1997, Ms. Chirkova had made her first trip overseas and enrolled at The Boston Conservatory as a student of Andrew Mark. In the year of 2000, Ms. Chirkova had received her Bachelor’s Degree from The Boston Conservatory. In the spring of 2002, Irina Chirkova had received her Master’s Degree from The Boston Conservatory under the guidance of Rhonda Rider. Throughout the years of her study, Irina had participated in the following competitions: 1988 - first prize at the Svetoslav Obretenov National Competition (Bulgaria); 1994, special award of Mrs. Any Atanasova and the prize for an Outstanding Young Talent at The Music and the Earth International Competition; 1996 - third prize in the chamber division at The Music and the Earth International Competition; 1997 - second prize at the Massachusetts American String Teachers’ Association Solo Competition; 2001 - a Winner of The Boston Conservatory Concerto Competition; 2001 - Mr. Aldo Parisot awarded her with a Fellowship for Norfolk Chamber Music Festival at Yale Summer School; 2001 - Virtu Foundation had granted her “Metzler” Instrument Scholarship. Irina Chirkova is an active solo and chamber musician. Up to the fall of 2005, Irina had been a teaching assistant to Rhonda Rider at Wellesley College and in the present she is a String Department Coordinator and Cello Faculty at the Brookline Music School, MA. Virtu Foundation's "Metzler" cello can be described as "the most sensitive and expressive instrument, a very rare find"!