Sofja Gülbadamova, prizewinner of many international competitions in USA, Spain, France, Germany and Russia, has won 2008 the first prizes at two prestigious piano competitions in France: the International Piano Competition in Aix-en-Provence as well as the 6th International Francis Poulenc Piano Competition, where she also received the special prize for the best interpretation of Poulenc’s music. 2010 brought new success: in August at the Rosario Marciano International Piano Competition (Vienna, Austria) Sofja Gülbadamova was awarded the Grand Prix and a few months later, in October, she won the 2nd prize at the International Piano Competition “André Dumortier” in Belgium.

2018 Sofja Gülbadamova appeared as a soloist with the MÁV Symphony Orchestra at the Grand Hall of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest performing the First Piano Concerto by Ernst von Dohnányi, a Hungarian composer to whom the pianist dedicates herself since many years with utmost passion.

In February 2018 a double CD dedicated to the piano works by Dohnányi was released by the label Capriccio. In November 2017 a live recording of the Piano Concerto No. 2 by the same composer, captured with the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra under Dmitri Jurowski, was published to the great acclaim of the international press.

2017 Sofja Gülbadamova was appointed artistic director of the International Brahms Festival in Mürzzuschlag (Austria).

Among the most significant recent concerts are to be mentioned Sofja Gülbadamova’s performances with Maestro Michail Jurowski and the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra (Sweden), at the International Festival in Colmar (France) with the Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra under Emmanuel Plasson, at the Historical City Hall with Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra as well as at the International House of Music with the Symphonic Orchestra “Russian Philharmony”, both under the baton of Dmitri Jurowski.

Furthermore Sofja Gülbadamova appeared at the National Theatre of Sarajevo with the Symphonic Orchestra of Sarajevo, at the International Music Festival of Colmar, at the Kurhaus Wiesbaden with the Staatskapelle Weimar, at the Historische Stadthalle in Wuppertal (Germany) within a prestigious recital series of Bayer Kultur in Wuppertal and Leverkusen as well as in chamber music formations, at the Teatro Colón in Bogota (Columbia), at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, at both the Great Hall and the Chamber Music Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmony and the Konzerthaus Berlin which count to the most important venues worldwide. A specially remarkable event was Sofja Gülbadamova’s debut recital at one of “Top ten” piano festivals in Europe according to the magazine “Piano International”, England, “Rarities of piano music” in Husum (Germany) in August 2012. An immediate reinvitation for the year 2013 followed. The CD from the festival 2012 edition, published by the danish label Danacord, where Sofja Gülbadamova’s recital is represented by a third of the total time, has been enthousiastically reviewed by the international musical press, BBC Music Magazine as well as International Piano (Jan./Feb.2014) among them, and has been selected as Editor’s Choice in the November 2013 issue of GRAMOPHONE.

Highlights of the past years include recitals at the major festivals such as “Journées Lyriques de Chartres”, Les Piano Folies, Liszt en Provence, Festival de St. Lizier, “Les Nuits Pianistiques” in Aix-en-Provence, „Les Nuits de Sûquet“ in Cannes, Festival de la Vézère (France), “Les Nuits de Piano d’Erbalunga” in Corsica, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Detroit (USA), at the International Music Festival Lucerne, Festival Sine Nomine as well as Cully Classique in Switzerland, Schleswig-Holstein music festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Rheingau Festival, Schönberger Musiksommer (Germany), at the eminent festivals in Holland, Belgium, Austria, Chili, Argentina, Moldavia, recitals in Washington D.C., Vienna, London, prestigious venues such as the Cité de la Musique and the Salle Cortot in Paris as well as at the Arsenal in Metz, Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam and many others.

Sofja Gülbadamova appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras such as Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn, Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra,  Collegium Instrumentale Halle, Lübeck Philharmonic Orchestra, State Radio and Television Orchestra of Russia.

Sofja Gülbadamova was born in Moscow where she began her musical studies at the Gnessins Special Music School with Mikhail Khokhlov. She continued her academic piano courses at the Musikhochschule Lübeck in the class of the exceptional American pianist James Tocco. She also studied at the Paris Conservatory with Jacques Rouvier as well as at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris with Guigla Katsarava and David Lively, where she was awarded a scholarship by the Zygmunt Zaleski Foundation.

Sofja has recorded for Russian, American, Polish, Spanish, French and German radio and television. Several CD recordings have been published in Germany and France.