Cèlia Margalef Boquera
BIOGRAPHY
Cèlia Margalef Boquera is a Catalan pianist based in London whose performances are gaining increasing recognition across the UK, Europe, and internationally. Recent highlights include a solo recital at the Barcelona Obertura Ciutat de Clàssica Festival, presented at the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona in March 2026. Earlier distinctions include First Prize at the 48th “Joves Intèrprets de Piano de Catalunya” Competition in Vilafranca del Penedès and a debut performance of J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations at the Toca’m Piano Festival in Tortosa (2022).
In the 2026 season, Cèlia performs across the UK and Spain, with engagements in London and other UK cities, as well as Barcelona, Mallorca, Lanzarote, and Canada.
She is a First Prize winner of the John Longmire Beethoven Competition (2024) and the Trinity Laban English Song Competition (2025), and received the Best Spanish Pianist “Rosa Sabater” Prize at the 8th Vigo International Piano Competition (2024), adjudicated by 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. She was a semifinalist at the Trinity Laban Soloists’ Competition, performing Schumann’s Piano Concerto, and at the International Piano Competition J. S. Bach (2025) in Saarbrücken, Germany.
As a soloist, Cèlia has appeared at leading venues in Spain including the Palau de la Música Catalana, Auditori Pau Casals (El Vendrell), Auditori Josep Carreras (Vila-seca), Jardí dels Tarongers, and Cercle del Liceu in Barcelona. In the UK she has performed at 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.
Cèlia studied at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu in Barcelona with Tensy Krismant, supported by a full Ferrer-Salat Excellence Scholarship, graduating top of her class. She continued her studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London with Prof. Mikhail Kazakevich, completing both a Master of Music and the Artist Diploma with honours, supported by the Alfred and Therese Kitchin Scholarship.
She has participated in masterclasses with musicians including Paul Badura-Skoda, Edith Fischer, Dmitri Alexeev, Sir Stephen Hough, Akiko Ebi, Leo Brouwer, Pascal Rogé, John Butt, Murray McLachlan, Dame Sarah Connolly, Wolfram Rieger, and James Bailleau.
Alongside her performance career, Cèlia teaches and serves 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.”