Cèlia Margalef Boquera - Piano
BIOGRAPHY
Cèlia Margalef Boquera (b. 1998) is a Spanish pianist based in London. She studied at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona with Tensy Krismant, supported by a full Ferrer-Salat Excellence Scholarship. After completing her undergraduate studies and graduating top of her class, she pursued a Master of Music degree at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London under the guidance of Prof. Mikhail Kazakevich. Cèlia recently graduated with honours from the Artist Diploma at Trinity Laban, where she was generously supported by the Alfred and Therese Kitchin Scholarship.
Cèlia is a First Prize winner of the John Longmire Beethoven Competition (2024) and the Trinity Laban English Song Competition (2025). She was awarded the Best Spanish Pianist “Rosa Sabater” Prize at the 8th Vigo International Piano Competition (2024), adjudicated by renowned pianists Martha Argerich and Cyprien Katsaris. Cèlia has also been a finalist at the Lillian Ash French Song Competition, the Elizabeth Schumann Lieder Competition, and the BPSE 31st Senior Intercollegiate Piano Competition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, as well as a semifinalist at the Trinity Laban Soloists’ Competition—performing Schumann’s Piano Concerto—and the International Piano Competition J. S. Bach (2025) in Saarbrücken, Germany.
Cèlia has recently taken part in several notable performances, including the Mozart at Rush Hour led by Martino Tirimo, where she performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, and solo recitals and featured appearances at the Polish Hearth Club and the 1a Primavera Musical Josep Martí i Cristià. Her earlier achievements include winning First Prize at the 48th Joves Intèrprets de Piano de Catalunya competition in Vilafranca del Penedès (Spain), and a significant debut performance of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations at the Toca’m Piano Festival in Tortosa in 2022.
Cèlia has participated in masterclasses with world-renowned musicians such as Paul Badura-Skoda, Edith Fischer, Dmitri Alexeev, Sir Stephen Hough, Akiko Ebi, Leo Brouwer, Pascal Rogé, John Butt, Murray McLachlan, Dame Sarah Connolly, and Wolfram Rieger.
As a soloist, Cèlia has performed in prestigious Spanish venues including the Palau de la Música Catalana, Auditori Pau Casals (El Vendrell), Auditori Josep Carreras (Vila-seca), Jardí dels Tarongers, and Cercle del Liceu (Barcelona). In the UK, she has appeared in Wigmore Hall, Queen’s House, St James’ Church Piccadilly, Southwark Cathedral, St Bartholomew the Great, Chichester Cathedral, the Polish Hearth Club, the Chapel of St Peter and St Paul, Blackheath Halls, and the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, among others.
In addition to her performance career, Cèlia combines her musical activities with teaching and works as organist at St John on Bethnal Green Church in London. She is frequently praised for her intellectual depth, refined musicality, and poetic interpretations. At the 2023 Lillian Ash French Song Competition, renowned coach Robin Bowman described her playing as “poised throughout, and always concordant with the singer (…) unselfconsciously sensitive to a huge range of text-based details (…) a penchant for unobtrusively presenting inner lines in a chordal texture without giving the impression that you are trying to teach us something about the song (…) immaculate preparation, though the playing always seemed spontaneous and ‘right in the moment’ (…) your range of tone-colours is amazing.”
