Dr Elena Nalimova began her musical training aged 5 being one of the youngest pupils at Kurgan Specialist Music School, Russia. She was a winner of national festivals and competitions and a recipient of prestigious awards such as New Names Foundation Award. Elena continued her studies at Kurgan Music College and St. Petersburg Conservatoire graduating from both with a First-class honours degree qualified as a solo performer, teacher and an accompanist.
Elena came to the United Kingdom in 1997 after winning the Inches Carr Scholarship for Accompaniment at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In 1999 she completed a Masters degree in Solo Performance supported by RSAMD Trust Scholarship. During 2001-2003 Elena held the Geoffrey Parsons Junior Fellowship in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal College of Music, London. In 2012 Elena completed a Doctorate in Performance Practice at the Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Whilst in the UK, Elena has won several prestigious accompaniment prizes, including Megan Foster Accompanist Prize and Gerald Moore Award. She took part in master-classes with distinguished artists such as Nathan Perelman, Dmitry Alexseev, Barry Douglas, Konrad Richter, Boris Berman, Martino Tirimo and the members of the Rosamunde Trio, Graham Johnson, Elly Ameling, Martin Isepp, Malcolm Martineau, Thomas Allen, Paul Hamburger, Sarah Walker, Jane Manning, Robert Holl, György Kurtág, and Anthony Marwood to name but a few.
Elena has given solo and chamber music recitals in the Glasunov and National Philharmonic Hall (St. Petersburg), Pollock House (Glasgow), Art Gallery Hall (Aberdeen), Grand Saloon Theatre, Drury Lane, St Martin-in-the-Fields, St. John’s Smith Square, the Royal Opera House’s Crush Room, St. James Piccadilly and Wigmore Hall, Sheldonian Theatre and Jacqueline du Pré Hall (Oxford), and Snape Maltings Concert Hall (as part of Britten-Pears Young Concert Artist Programme).
As a chamber musician, she performed at Bromsgrove, Lanercost and Windsor festivals, Aberystwyth MusicFest, IMS Prussia Cove, Les Vacances de Monsieur Haydn Festival (as part of The Atlas Trio) and other venues throughout Russia, Europe and the UK. Elena performed as part of Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now! scheme and was a Concordia Foundation artist. Elena taught piano at the junior department of Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Rachmaninov Music School in St. Petersburg, Latymer School (London), Ardingly College (West Sussex), and worked as an accompanist and Russian language coach at RCM and the AIMS International Summer School before joining the team of Piano Accompanists at Chetham’s School of Music in 2009. Since 2012 Elena has been a member of the piano faculty at Chetham’s International Piano Summer School.
Elena appeared on Radio 3 in a special edition of In Tune celebrating the 150th anniversary of Richard Strauss in 2014, and is regularly featured as an accompanists for the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition and other musical contests, such as Concours International de violon d’Avignon Ginette Neveu (2013), Concours International Grumiaux (2014), Manchester University Concerto Competition (2015).
