Maria Prinz

Maria Prinz stands out among pianists for achieving recognition both in solo performances and in supporting roles alongside vocalists, other instrumentalists, and chamber ensembles. She also holds importance as an educator.

Born in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, Prinz received her earliest piano instruction from her father, the noted conductor and composer Konstantin Iliev. She continued her training at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in what was then East Berlin, where Rudolf Dunckel served as her teacher, before undertaking private study in Vienna with the eminent accompanist Jörg Demus and in Paris with Yvonne Lefébure.

Prinz has appeared as concerto soloist with major orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and the Sofia Symphony, while preserving links to her native country after successive moves to Germany and then Austria. As a recitalist she has performed across Europe, the U.S., and Japan; in 2006 she presented an international series titled “Mozart and His Contemporaries” marking the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. Summer engagements have included appearances at the Salzburg Festival and the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan.

Her work as an accompanist has encompassed an unusually broad range of partners, among them flutist Dieter Flury, clarinetist Alfred Prinz, and baritone Matthias Goerne. Beginning in the late 2010s she has frequently collaborated with soprano Margarita Gritskova.

Prinz entered the recording studio for the Gega label with an album of keyboard concertos by Haydn and Mozart, followed by several further releases on the same imprint. In 2013 she moved to Naxos for a disc of Mozart violin sonatas transcribed for flute, recorded with Patrick Gallois. Additional Naxos projects with Gritskova have included the 2020 album Prokofiev: Songs and Romances.

Since 1987 Prinz has taught at Vienna’s University of Music and the Performing Arts.