Biography
With the rare beauty of her tone and and her enchanting presence on stage, Irina Kulikova catches the hearts of audiences across the globe. She belongs to that class of musicians that profoundly move people with the purity of their performance. The daughter of a Russian cello teacher, Irina Kulikova started developing her musical senses at an exceptionally young age. At five, she got her first guitar. At eight, she made her first public performance. By the time she was twelve, Irina Kulikova was a child star playing all across Russia and at festivals in Europe, to be discovered by some of the world’s leading guitarists and critics. At fourteen her name appeared in Maurice Summerfield’s book The Classical Guitar, Its Evolution, Players and Personalities Since 1800.
Today, Kulikova tours far afield, with appearances at leading festivals in Europe, North America and Asia and in concert halls such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, the Academic Capella in St. Petersburg, Schloss Mirabell in Salzburg, the Palau de la Musica in Valencia, the Musashino Hall in Tokyo and the Oriental Arts Center in Shanghai. She has received over thirty awards for her artistry, including first prizes at the highly prestigious competitions of Michele Pittaluga in Italy, Guitarra Alhambra in Spain, Forum Gitarre Wien in Austria and Iserlohn in Germany.
Kulikova graduated with distinction from the Mozarteum University in Salzburg (Austria), the Conservatoire of Maastricht (The Netherlands) and the Gnessins Academy in Moscow (Russia). She has made four solo recordings, three of which are distributed worldwide by the Naxos label. Kulikova resides in The Hague (The Netherlands), Los Angeles (USA) and Salzburg (Austria). She combines her concert career as a soloist and with a variety of ensembles and orchestras with a personal dedication to teaching.