BIOGRAPHY

Kristina Arakelyan’s work as composer, pianist and educator is guided by a clear vision of music’s intrinsic power and purpose. Her works are hallmarked by their striking beauty and compelling emotional honesty and have been performed at some of the world’s leading venues including London’s Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall and Southbank Centre, London; Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Carnegie Hall in New York; Symphony Hall, Birmingham. The release of Dreamland, her solo debut album as composer and pianist for Apple Music’s Platoon label in 2025, follows the world premiere of her Piano Concerto with the Armenian State Symphony in February – a moment of great joy for Kristina, as a British-Armenian.

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2024 saw new settings of two poems by Freeman Edwin Miller, written for the 70th anniversary of Newcastle Choral Society; a new choral composition for Bold Tendencies, the pioneering south London arts festival; a commission from Britten Pears Arts at Snape Maltings, A Christmas Offering, written to be performed alongside Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols or as a stand-alone work. Her latest commission for the BBC Singers, a setting of one of the ancient O Antiphons – O Adonai – was first heard in Temple Church and on Radio 3 in December. Another commission for Christmas was sung by Huddersfield Choral Society, and the premiere of an arrangement of her carol Ave Maris Stella at New York’s Carnegie Hall. New works were also commissioned by Manchester-based Kantos Chamber Choir and the Choir of King’s College London. In addition to the premiere of her Piano Concerto in February 2025, the world premiere of Toccata for organist, Anna Lapwood, and the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall London takes place on 15 May. A new work for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and solo piano, played by Kristina, will be recorded for broadcast in May.

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Born in Budapest in 1994 to a non-musical Armenian family, Kristina fell in love with the human voice when she was taken to the opera as a young child. She moved to Armenia at the age of four and, despite not having a piano at home, she wanted to learn to play the piano and began taking lessons after school. Her rapid progress on the instrument was enhanced after she came to England in 2006 to study at the Purcell School. She caught the public’s attention as the 15-year-old winner of the BBC Young Composers’ Competition when her piece for the BBC Singers was broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

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Her training continued with studies in composition and piano at London’s Royal Academy of Music and a postgraduate year at the University of Oxford. She recently completed her PhD in composition at King’s College Londonwhere her tutors included Silvina Milstein and Sir George Benjamin. During her twenties Kristina has cultivated her lyrical voice with works such as To the Stars (2015); Dreamland (2020-21); Seascapes (2021), a sequence of choral companions to the Four Sea Interludes from Britten’s Peter Grimes, written for the BBC Singers; Star Fantasy for organ (2021); and the song cycle Penelope: Seven Ways to Wait (2022).

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Kristina’s commitment to music education is reflected in a growing output of pieces for young musicians or beginners, including for the ABRSM piano syllabus (2023-2024), and her teaching work at the Junior Royal Academy of Music and as associate lecturer at the University of Surrey.