Festival Artists

Elena Lüthi

Piano / Bulgaria & Switzerland

Elena Lüthi (née Skachkova) was born in Lóvech, Bulgaria in 1980. At the age of five she began playing the piano.In 1998 she completed the School of Music in Pleven, Bulgaria, with honors. At that time she had already won several prizes at national and international competitions, among them second prizes at the Isola di Capri in Italy (1995) and at the Sascha Lambreva Competition (1997) in Bulgaria. She came second at the Franz Schubert Festival which also took place in her country of birth. Recordings for the National Bulgarian Radio and Television followed.

From 1998 to 2001 she studied with Prof. Atanas Kurtev and lecturer Krasimir Gatev at the Music Academy “Pantcho Vladigerov” in Sofia. Between 2001 and 2003 she attended Prof. Hans-Jörg Strub’s piano class at the University of Music and Theatre Zurich/Winterthur which she completed with honors. Between 2002 and 2004 Elena Lüthi was a scholarship holder of the Marguerite Meister Foundation and the Vontobel Bank. From 2007-2010 she studied the organ at the Zurich University of the Arts with Ursula Jaggi, Prof. Stefan Bleicher und Prof. Tobias Willi. Elena Lüthi attended masterclasses for piano with Katrin Wickers, Detlef Kraus, Milan Skampa, Ludmil Angelov, Germaine Mounie and others.

Since 2002 Elena Lüthi has participated at the Goppisberg Music Festival and since 2005 she has had regular concert appearances with the violinist Deborah Spiegel. In 2009 they founded the SpiegelTrio together with the cellist Eszter Baráti. The ensemble performs regularly in and outside Swizerland. In 2015 they recorded the work “Odessa Trio” by Ofer Ben Amots. Elena Lüthi teaches the piano at the Prova Music School in Winterthur and at the Municipal School of Music in Illnau-Effretikon. In addition she is chief organist of the Catholic Laurentius Church in Effretikon.