Internationally acclaimed pianist Zlata Chochieva will return to Lee University for her second performance of the Lee University Presidential Concert Series. The concert, featuring works by J.S. Bach, Schumann, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff, will take place on Thursday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Squires Recital Hall. 

“We are thrilled to welcome Zlata Chochieva back to the Presidential Concert Series this year,” said Darlia Conn, director of Lee’s Presidential Concert Series. “I don’t believe our audience has ever been more enthusiastic about a first performance than about hers a year ago. Everyone was wowed, not only by her expertise, but also by the apparently effortless way she performed the repertoire. This is a concert not to be missed, and the intimacy of Squires Hall provides the perfect place to hear her.” 

Known for her highly praised recordings of Chopin and Rachmaninov, Chochieva has been involved in music since her first stage performance at the age of four. Her sensational recording of the Chopin “Etudes” has been acclaimed by critic Jeremy Nicholas of Gramophone as “one of the most consistently inspired, masterfully executed, and beautiful-sounding versions I can recall.”   

Since her early start in music and her first orchestral debut at seven, Chochieva has given concerts in Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Philharmonie de Paris, Wigmore Hall, Teatro de Fenice in Venice, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen, the Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatory, and Taiwan’s National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts. She has performed with numerous orchestras, including Russian National Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice.   

Recording exclusively for Naïve Records, her most recent solo release “Im freien,” was selected by Gramophone as an “Editor’s Choice” in June 2023. Her first recording for Naïve, “Chiaroscuro,” was crowned a Critic’s Choice in International Piano Magazine. Her “(re)creations” disc, recorded during the pandemic on Accentus, won a prestigious German Record Critics’ Award.   

A protégé of Mikhail Pletnev at Central Special Music School, Chochieva also studied with Pavel Nersessian at Moscow State Conservatory. She completed her studies at Mozarteum University of Salzburg with Jacques Rouvier. In 2018, she established the International Festival at Rachmaninov’s estate in Ivanovka and now serves as its director.   

Tickets for this performance are $15 for adults and $5 for students, seniors, and children. They are available for purchase on eventbrite.com/, at the Lee University Box Office in the Dixon Center, or by contacting (423) 614-8343, between 3-6 p.m., starting April 3.   

Squires Recital Hall is located in the Humanities Center on Paul Conn Parkway. Designated parking will be available for the event.   

For more information on the Presidential Concert Series, visit leeuniversity.edu/pcs/ or call the School of Music at (423) 614-8240.