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Pianist
Vanya Cohen has distinguished herself as both a concerto soloist and chamber musician. She studied with pianist
Lazar Berman for several years just before his death.
Cohen was born in Monaco in 1980 and took up the piano at age seven. When she was 15, she matriculated at the Conservatoire de Paris, studying with
Bruno Rigutto. She won first prizes in both piano and chamber music there, and she went on for graduate classes; during this period, she recorded a recital for broadcast on France's Mezzo music channel.
Cohen took master classes from an unusually prestigious group of artists, including
Leon Fleisher,
Maria João Pires, and, from 2003 to 2005,
Berman, at the Imola Piano Academy in Italy; she was among his last students.
Cohen earned scholarships from the Banque Populaire Foundation and the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation. All this high-powered instruction brought
Cohen a long list of honors, including second prize at the International Young Pianist Competition in Meknes, Morocco, second prize at the Scholarship Competition of the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe, second prize at the San Remo Piano Competition, and first prize at the Music Competition of the Zonta-club de France.
Cohen has been active as a concerto soloist, appearing with the
Monte Carlo Philharmonic, the Nice Philharmonic, and the
San Remo Philharmonic Orchestras, among others, and she is a frequent guest at festivals in Europe, the U.S., and Israel, including the Music Festival of the Kremlin, the Mannes Festival in New York, and the Antalya Festival in Turkey.
Cohen is also an enthusiastic chamber music player who has recorded three albums of violin-and-piano music by
Saint-Saëns for the Naxos label with violinist
Fanny Clamagirand. The most recent, featuring
transcriptions of works from other media, including the Danse macabre and Introduction et rondo capriccioso, Op. 28, appeared on Naxos in 2021. ~ James Manheim