Kristina Arakelyan

Kristina’s interest in music started as a young child in Armenia, when she would often be found singing at home or listening to classical music, particularly opera arias. At seven, Kristina started piano lessons after being spotted playing in the school piano club. It was quickly recognised that Kristina had a rare talent for her age. When she was 11, she auditioned, and was accepted as a scholarship student, generously supported by the Music and Dance Scheme, at the highly reputable Purcell School. In 2006 Kristina started at the school, which is renowned as Britain’s oldest music school.

Kristina’s musical education continued with a full scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Music, where she graduated with a BMus in Composition in 2016. She then completed a MSt in Composition at the University of Oxford in 2017, kindly supported by the Luys Scholarship, as well as a choral scholarship at St. Peters College. She gained her LRAM teaching qualification with distinction in 2020. Kristina is currently studying for her PhD in Composition at King’s College, London and leading theory seminars for undergraduate students.

Kristina has also developed her music research interests and has taken part in academic conferences. In particular, in 2020 she presented her research in the cross-Atlantic KCL-UNC conference, which lead to a continued relationship with the university in the COIL collaborative composition project in Autumn 2020.

Kristina is now exceptionally busy as a composer, pianist and educator. She continues her PhD studies at King’s, at the same time teaching both there, at the Junior Royal Academy of Music and privately. She is also developing her own Online Theory School which she hopes to launch during 2021. She continues to perform as a soloist and an accompanist and is receiving exciting new commissions for compositions. Kristina’s passion for music and dedication to education is unbound and her full musical schedule is testament to this.

Biography taken from composer’s website.