Elina Gotsouliak Benda

Elina Gotsouliak was born in 1979 in Riga (Latvia), where she attended the music high school and later the Music Academy in her hometown. During this period, she won several first prizes at international piano competitions, including the Concours Musical de France Ginette Gaubert and the Concours International de Piano Maryse Cheilan in France.

In 2002, she began studying with Rudolf Buchbinder in Basel, where she graduated with distinction in concert performance. With Rudolf Buchbinder, she deepened her interpretation of the works of the Viennese Classical period and German Romanticism, broadening her musical horizons beyond the Russian piano tradition in which she was trained.

Rudolf Buchbinder wrote about her: “Elina Gotsouliak is an outstanding pianist with a brilliant and flexible technique, which she masterfully puts at the service of musical expression. She also possesses a solid foundation of musical knowledge, which enables her to find the right tone for each style.”

Already during her studies in Latvia — and even more after starting her studies in Basel — Elina Gotsouliak devoted herself intensively to chamber music and song accompaniment. Since 2010, she has been a professor at the Hochschule für Musik Basel.

She performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Slovenia, Latvia, and Brazil. She is a frequent guest at international music festivals and concert series, including Musica Viva, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Crescendo Festival in Berlin, Landesakademie Ochsenhausen (Germany), J. S. Bach International Chamber Music Festival (Latvia), Internationale Sommer Akademie Payerbach and Musik Forum Viktring (Austria), Ljubljana Festival (Slovenia), Berengaria Festival (Cyprus), Allegro Festival Guimarães (Portugal), and Crusell Music Festival (Finland).

Her solo CD featuring the late works of Frédéric Chopin was highly praised by the music press. She also recorded a chamber music album with works by Robert Schumann and Clara Schumann, released on the GENUIN / Artist Consort label to mark the 200th anniversary of the two composers.