Cèlia Margalef Boquera - Piano
BIOGRAPHY
Cèlia Margalef Boquera (b.1998) is a Spanish pianist based in London. Cèlia studied at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona with Tensy Krismant where she received a full Ferrer-Salat Excellence Scholarship. After finishing her undergraduate degree, she got accepted in the class of Professor Mikhail Kazakevich at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London for the Master of Music. Cèlia has been awarded the Hannah Brooke Prize, the Cardnell Piano Prize, the Trinity College London Scholarship, the Trinity Laban Scholarship, and the Arthur Haynes Scholarship. Cèlia is currently continuing the Artist Diploma at Trinity Laban with the Alfred and Therese Kitchin Scholarship. Cèlia receives regular coaching from Martino Tirimo, Rivka Golani, Sergio de Simone, and Can Çakmur.
Cèlia has recently won the Best Spanish Pianist “Rosa Sabater” Prize at the 8th Vigo International Piano Competition. Martha Argerich and Cyprien Katsaris were among the distinguished jurors of this competition. This year, Cèlia was also the prize winner of the John Longmire competition at Trinity Laban and, therefore, took part in the 31st Senior Intercollegiate Piano Competition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
In March 2025, Cèlia will participate in the Bach International Piano Competition in Würzburg, Germany. She will perform works including the Sixth Partita and the Goldberg Variations.
Cèlia was the first-prize winner of the 48th “Joves Intèrprets de Piano de Catalunya” piano competition in Vilafranca del Penedès in Spain. In 2022, she debuted with the Goldberg Variations by J. S. Bach in the “Toca’m” Piano Festival in Tortosa, Spain. Cèlia previously performed and recorded the Goldberg Variations in 2020 for the “Pianíssim” online series of El Cicle Liceu Jove curated and presented by the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona.
Cèlia has engaged in masterclasses with 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 renowned Spanish concert venues such as the Palau de la Música Catalana, Auditori Pau Casals in El Vendrell, Auditori Josep Carreras in Vila-seca, Jardí dels Tarongers in Barcelona, and Cercle del Liceu. In London and the UK, Cèlia has appeared both as a soloist and with ensembles in venues such as Wigmore Hall, the 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, and the Sheldonian Theatre, in Oxford.
In addition, Cèlia combines her studies and performances with teaching and playing the organ at St John on Bethnal Green church in London. She is an accomplished and passionate musician that has been continuously praised for her intellectual, sophisticated, and reliable style. At the Lillian Ash French Song Competition 2023, Robin Bowman described her playing as “poised throughout, and always concordant with the singer (…) you were unselfconsciously sensitive to a huge range of text-based details (…) you have 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 (…) your level of preparation was immaculate, though the playing always seemed spontaneous and “right in the moment” (…) your range of tone-colours is amazing”.
