Born in the Crimea, Ilona Timchenko won first prize in the Third Abstract Securities Landor Competition in 2007, beating off strong international competition and winning a contract with Landor Records- her first CD on their label coming out before Christmas.

Blessed with phenomenal technique and powerful musical and expressive skills, she brought the packed audience at England's Buxton Festival to their feet in July 2008 at her debut recital there - and is now travelling the world's concert halls as her international career gathers momentum; having already appeared in recital at Wigmore Hall, Philips Hall in Holland, the Vienna Musikverein, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and Madrid's Monumental Theatre.

Ilona's playing blends Russian tradition with European style and warmth. Her Mozart is classically idiomatic and her Romantic repertoire, both in concerto and recital performance, powerful and endlessly poetic. Seemingly dispassionate as she sits at the piano, she seems almost like a spectator watching a huge drama unfold from the keys beneath her minute hands.

She studied in Moscow with the Bunins, Maria Polivanova and also studied composition with Albert Leman and Roman Ledeniov. She moved on to the Netherlands to work on interpretation and technique with Alexander Gold and Rian de Waal, in Italy with Lazar Berman and in France with Michel Beroff. She went on to win numerous other competitions including first prize in the Enesco Competition in Bucharest, and the Maria Callas Grand Prix in Athens, as well as special awards in the Beethoven Competition in Vienna and the Liszt Competition in Utrecht.

As a composer Ilona's work has been warmly received - and she had special acclaim from the distinguished composer Sofia Gubaidulina for her sextet "Dedicated to Avignon" premiered at the Avignon Festival of Modern Music.

Ilona is also an active concerto and chamber player having performed with The New Music Chamber Orchestra under Mark Lubotsky and the recently created Stella Trio in her adopted home town of Santiago de Compostella in Spain - where she is now working with ArrivaDiva, her management advisers, as Artistic Director in her own chamber music festival to open in November 2009.