Elena Antimova, pianist and composer first started playing the piano at age of four and gave her first solo recital at age of six in her native country Bulgaria . She received piano honors and awards from several national piano competitions and premiered the piano music of American composer Richard Cornell at the Third Annual Festival of American Musicin Sofia , Bulgaria . As the Special Prize winner of The First National Piano Competition for Contemporary American Music she was acclaimed by the critics as “a stunning interpreter of contemporary works by American and Bulgarian composers” (Music Yesterday Today Magazine, Sofia). Since then Ms. Antimova has shown a growing passion for  modern compositions. While a student at The Boston University Tanglewood Institute(summer of  2000) she has been studying with some of the world's leading pianists such as Maria-Clodes Jaguaribe, Anthony di Bonaventura and Tong-Il Han, Claude Labelle  and performed with the Young Artists Orchestra of Tanglewood as part of the Tanglewood Music Festivalunder Maestro David Hoose and Maestro Julian Wachner.

As a solo and chamber musician she held performances at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Klavierhaus, National Arts Club and CAMI Hall. She studied with Claude Franck, Roland Keller, Paolo Police, Victor Chuchkov, Gilbert Kalish, Luiz de Moura Castro, Tania Leon, Robert McDonald, Ignat Solzhenitsyn and Thomas Sauer at various master classes. Her performances have been broadcasted by CUNY TV-Channel 75, WNYE TV-Channel 25, Eurocom TV, Bulgarian National Television, Bulgarian National Radio, Radio Free Europe, WNYC, New York Public Radio, and Voice of America. In 2002 she was featured in the Emmy-nominated documentary produced by CUNY TV as a part of the program Study with the Best. As a chamber musician she gave concerts in New York City, as well as throughout the US.
 
Ms. Antimova holds a BM (cum laude) and a MM (summa cum laude) in Piano Performance from Brooklyn College, CUNY where she studied under Prof. Michael Rogers. As an outstanding student she has been awarded The John Challener Award in Piano (2002)and The Sol Goldman Scholarship(2003 and 2004), The Serf Scholarship (2005, 2006 and 2007) in recognition of her outstanding achievements, as well as the exclusive Sam Levenson Award (2005) for making a significant contribution to the Brooklyn College Community. As a student she has performed with the Conservatory Orchestra, the Ensemble for Contemporary Music and has been extensively collaborating with the Percussion Department where she has been studying chamber music under Prof. Morris Lang. As the 2005 Concerto Competitionwinner she performed Haydn’s D Major Piano Concerto with The Conservatory Orchestra under Ken Selden.
 
As a composer Ms. Antimova is strongly influenced by the musical heritage of her native country. Her compositions often apply melodic and rhythmic elementsinspired by the Balkan folk traditions combined with contemporary form and approach to the sound.

Ms. Antimova has performed as a duo with Mr. Kalin Ivanov since 2001. 
 
 
“a stunning interpreter of contemporary works by American and Bulgarian composers.”
 
-         Music Yesterday Today Magazine, Sofia, Bulgaria
 
 
“ A fine pianist, Ms. Antimova played brilliantly, with deep identification and riveting concentration.”

-   New York Concert Review