Biography

Hailed as “brilliant” and “deeply sensitive” by “Das Orchester” Magazine, pianist Maria Prinz is widely in demand as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician.

Ms. Prinz has performed with leading orchestras throughout Europe, including several performances with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, collaborating with renowned conductors Sir Neville Marriner, Seiji Ozawa and Riccardo Muti at the Salzburg Festival.

As a recitalist, Ms. Prinz has concertized in the U.S., Austria, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Belgium, and Bulgaria, and  performed a series of recitals entitled “Mozart and His Contemporaries” in Vienna, Sofia, Prague, Bloomington and Los Angeles in celebration of Mozart’s 250th birthday.

She has performed at leading venues and festivals around the world, including the Salzburg Festival, Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo (Japan) and in Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Purcell Room of Queen Elizabeth Hall and Milton Court in Barbican Centre and in Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan.

Her chamber music collaborations include numerous performances with members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, international artists, such as Andrew Marriner, Patrick Gallois, Philippe Pierlot and world- famous singers Ludovic Tézier, Krassimira Stoyanova, Matthias Goerne and Boris Pinkhasovich.

The highlights of the season 2023/2024 are a Gala-Concert “O sole nostro” at the Wiener Konzerthaus, as well as song recitals with baritone Boris Pinkhasovich at the festival “Klassik im Burghof” in Klagenfurt and with Ludovic Tézier at the Munich Opera Festival.

Maria Prinz recorded Haydn and Mozart piano concertos with the Sofia Symphony Orchestra, Brahms Sonatas with clarinetist Alfred Prinz, a Chandos CD  “The 20th Century Concerto Grosso”with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner, a series of Naxos CDs with Mozart Violin sonatas and Beethoven Variations Op.105 and Op.107 with flutist Patrick Gallois, Puccini-complete songs with Krassimira Stoyanova, 3 albums (“Russian songs”, “Prokofiev:Songs and Romances” and “Shostakovich:Songs and Romances”)  with Margarita Gritskova and an all Brahms CD with Vienna Philharmonic principal flutist Karl-Heinz Schütz.

Maria Prinz was born in Sofia, Bulgaria into a musical family. Her father is the famous Bulgarian conductor and composer Konstantin Iliev. She studied at the Music University “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin with Rudolf Dunckel, in Vienna with Jörg Demus and in Paris with Yvonne Lefébure.

In addition to her performing career, Ms. Prinz has taught at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna from 1987 until 2022.