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 A Christmas Offering, her choral album recorded by King's College, London, conducted by Joseph Fort, took place in late 2025. Works from this album, as well as Kristina's solo piano album Dreamland, will be available to purchase via Boosey and Hawkes.

2025 was the year of keyboard concertos, with the premiere of her concertino Toccata performed by Anna Lapwood and the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, the premiere of her Piano Concerto with the Armenian State Symphony in February with the composer at the piano – a moment of great joy for Kristina, as a British-Armenian. A new work for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and solo piano, played by Kristina, was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in July 2025.

​

After the premiere of her Christmas Lullaby, Kristina is delighted to be collaborating with the Huddersfield Choral Society again on Hymn To The Muses, conducted by Ellie Slorach and accompanied by the Royal Northern Sinfonia in March, 2026. 

​​

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.

​

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).

​

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.