FREE Lunchtime Concert: featuring Miryana Moteva and Lora Al-Ahmad, duo piano

Bulgarian pianist Miryana Moteva maintains a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator. She has recently appeared with Golden Valley Orchestra, Linden Hills Chamber Orchestra and Buffalo Community Orchestra in concertos ranging from Mozart to Prokofiev and contemporary Clarice Assad. Next season, Moteva returns to Golden Valley Orchestra in a performance of Manuel de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain and makes her debut at the Minnesota Danish American Center’s Music on the Mississippi series.

Moteva collaborates regularly with members of the Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Opera in concerts across the US. She has performed at Schubert Club’s ‘Courtroom Concerts’ in Saint Paul, the ‘Bulgarian Concert Evenings’ in New York City, New Jersey’s ‘Mozaika’ Music Series, MacPhail Center for Music’s ‘Spotlight’ Series, University of Minnesota’s ‘Balkanicus’ Series, Hamline University’s ‘Music and Arts’ Series, University of Saint Thomas’ ‘Chapel Arts’ Series, University of Wisconsin, the Basilica of Saint Mary, and the Fitzgerald Theater, among others. She has concertized with the Isles Ensemble and the 10th Wave Music Collective. Her performances have been featured on Classical Minnesota Public Radio and National Public Radio’s Program From the Top. Moteva plays Clara Schumann at Schubert Club’s new transportive media exhibit ‘Letters Alive: Composers Words Behind the Music.’

A strong advocate for contemporary music, Moteva has dedicated a significant part of her career to commissioning and performing works by living composers. Recent highlights include the Midwest premieres of Clarice Assad’s Piano Concerto ‘Lilith,’ Lora Al-Ahmad’s Piano Trio ‘Irminden,’ Angel Nikolov’s Flute Trio ‘Deadlock’ and the commission of Marc Migó’s Sonata for Violin and Piano ‘Death and Spring.’ The latter received critical acclaim at its Schubert Club premiere in April 2023, which led to an invitation for a Catalan Music CD recording on Spain’s IBS Classical Label and a recital tour of Catalonia. During the 2024-2025 season, Moteva received a grant through MacPhail Center for Music to curate ‘Mysticism, Legends and Traditions,’ a concert featuring piano trios by living composers.

Moteva has appeared at international festivals including ‘March Music Days’ and ‘Music and Earth’ in Bulgaria, as well as ‘San Daniele International Piano Meeting’ in Italy, where she was awarded the audience prize for best performance of a Classical sonata. In 2010, she was also a finalist in the Schubert Club Bruce P. Carlson Scholarship Competition. Currently, Moteva is on the faculty of MacPhail Center for Music, where she serves as a full-time collaborative pianist and maintains a thriving studio as a teaching artist. She is an active board member of the Music Education Committee at the Schubert Club in Saint Paul.

Moteva holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance and a Doctorate in Collaborative Piano from the University of Minnesota. Her principal teachers include Emma Tahmizian, Lydia Artymiw, and Timothy Lovelace.

Lora Al-Ahmad is a pianist and a composer from Sofia, Bulgaria. She graduated with honors from Mannes College in New York City, earning a BM degree in Piano Performance, a Double Major Master’s degree in Piano Performance and Composition, and a Professional Studies Diploma degree in Composition. Her piano studies were under the guidance of Pavlina Dokovska and Vladimir Valjarevic, while she studied composition with Lowell Liebermann. Lora has performed at prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall (annually), The Bohemian National Hall, the DiMenna Center, the German House at the United Nations Plaza, the Schubert Club in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the Niskayuna Branch Library in New York, the Andy Gato Gallery in Miami, as well as on concert stages throughout Europe and the United States.

As the winner of the 2020 National Flute Association Newly Published Music Competition (USA) and Second Prize recipient at the 2025 Ivan Spassov International Composition Competition in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Lora’s compositions have received international recognition and have been performed by acclaimed musicians, including Stefan Ragnar Hoskuldsson, former principal flutist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and now with the Berlin Philharmonic; Maron Khoury, flutist at the Metropolitan Opera; Billy Hunter, principal trumpet of the Metropolitan Opera; Wolfram Koessel, cellist of the American String Quartet; among others.

Lora’s commissions include Piano Trio Irminden (2021), premiered during her residency as Guest Composer and Lecturer at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) and later featured on the 2022 album Irminden: One Hundred Years of Bulgarian Piano Trios. In 2024, she was commissioned by the Off the Beaten Path Chamber Music Festival in Kovachevitsa, Bulgaria, where she composed the piano quintet Dosta: Bound for the Celestial and served as the festival’s Resident Composer. That same year, her piece Consolation in Loving Memory of Allan Evans was selected for ABRSM’s piano repertoire collection at the post-graduate diploma level.

Most recently, acclaimed flutist Jennifer Bouton commissioned Samodiva’s Spell for piccolo and piano, which premiered at Roosevelt University in Chicago in April 2026,where Lora also served as Guest Faculty in the Piano and Composition departments. Currently a doctoral candidate in the Piano Performance program at the CUNY Graduate Center, Lora remains an advocate for contemporary music, serving as an executive board member of the Bulgarian Concert Evenings in New York. Her compositions are published by the Theodore Presser Company.

Lora has maintained a steady teaching career for over a decade, teaching privately and serving on the faculty of Bard College Preparatory Division for three years. As of 2025, she joined the esteemed piano faculty of the Hoff-Barthelson School of Music and the composition faculty at Mannes College Prep Division.