Dr. Christina Wright-Ivanova, hailed by critics as “a brilliant pianist” (Wiener Zeitung, Vienna) and an “ideal partner” (Huffington Post), is a pianist, professor, vocal coach and chamber musician with twenty years of experience in the performing arts. She has performed solo and collaborative recitals at renowned global venues in over thirty countries throughout North & South America, UK, Europe, Asia, and Australia, and has played over 150 world premiere performances, showcasing her dedication to new music.
As of January 2026, she is beginning a new role as Associate Professor and the Coordinator of Performing Arts at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) in Dubai, UAE; she has lived in four countries and brings a deeply global perspective to her work. Dr. Ivanova has worked as Artistic Director for diverse performing arts organizations such as the Redfern Arts Center (Keene, NH) and the North End Music & Performing Arts Center’s Concert Series (Boston, MA) where she has curated artistic programs and overseen project management. Dr. Ivanova is equally at home working with opera singers and instrumentalists, and is regularly featured globally in master classes, concert series, and performance residencies in solo and collaborative chamber partnerships. She can be heard on several recording labels such as PARMA Records, Toccata NEXT, New World Records, ARS Produktion, MSR Classics and Albany Records.
Dr. Wright-Ivanova spends her summers at New England Conservatory’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice in Boston, and has premiered over 150 works by living composers. She has performed both solo and collaborative new works in such venues as Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Berklee School of Music, MIT, The Harvard Club, Opera America (NY), Jordan Hall, Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall, Old North Meeting House, and in the Clutch New Music Series in Austin TX and the NEXTET series in Las Vegas.
She has enjoyed working with composers such as Jo Kondo, Augusta Read Thomas, Steve Reich, Julian Anderson, Joan Tower, Daniel Brewbaker, Tristan Murail, Robert Beaser, Jennifer Bellor, Heather Gilligan, Daron Hagen, Paul Chihara, Virko Baley and more. She has worked with several ensembles in new music, including the Callithumpian Consort, MIVOS Quartet (NEON Festival), HUB New Music, Juventas New Music Ensemble, and at the Academie für Neue Musik with the Arditti Quartet. She also recorded a series of demos for Jonny Greenwood’s (Radiohead) soundtrack for the 2012 movie ‘The Master’ (Western LLC).
Her love of art song has brought fruitful collaborations in recital with singers from the Metropolitan Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Greek National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Lithuanian National Opera, Calgary Opera, Boston Lyric Opera and more. She is a Britten-Pears Scholar (UK) and a Crear Fellow (Scotland). Dr. Wright-Ivanova has worked as an opera coach and scenes director with several companies across the US and Canada and has been the official pianist for the Metropolitan Opera Auditions.
Recently, with duo au courant partner, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Weiss, she has performed at the Berlin Art Song Festival and has released a debut duo recording entitled ‘Songs Sacred and Profane’ on Albany Records. The critically-acclaimed recording included new song cycles by composer Daron Hagen. The duo also recently commissioned a large-scale art song project entitled “Passageway” by German composer Jonathan Stark that experiences the journey of immigrants into Europe through music and poetry. The duo were also 2nd place winners at the New York City songSLAM 2019, where they performed a world premiere by composer Heather Gilligan. They are committed to performing songs by living composers based especially on issues of social justice, immigration, and equity for all.
Dr. Wright-Ivanova frequently serves as an Adjudicator for international competitions and has presented art song and chamber music master classes at institutions such as Arizona State University, the University of Southern California, New England Conservatory, the Nanjing University for the Arts (China), and the Rodi Conservatory (Italy).
As a chamber musician, she has been heard globally, appearing in recital with many established artists, including Bion Tsang, Kathrin ten Hagen, Andrea Segar, Sharon Cohen, Yevgeny Kutik, and Dami Kim. She enjoys frequent performances with orchestral musicians, including members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Las Vegas Philharmonic, and Kansas City Symphony and with the Apple Hill, Lydian, and MIVOS Quartets. She has given master classes across the US, Europe, and China. An recent release of diverse American cello and piano music, ‘American Vignettes’, with cellist Aron Zelkowicz can now be heard on Toccata Classics.
Dr. Wright-Ivanova has a deep commitment to teaching. As a Guest Pianist-in-Residence with Venezuela’s classical music program, El Sistema, she taught classes, worked with emerging young artists and was interviewed on TV, newspaper, and radio broadcasts throughout the country about the importance of teaching music to youth. She has presented at several national and international College Music Society Conferences and recently gave a lecture recital in Vancouver on the music of Barbara Monk Feldman.
She was previously on faculty as Associate Professor of Music at Keene State College, where she also served as Chair of the Music Department and on the KSC Senate. At KSC, she spearheaded a capital campaign to become an All-Steinway School, the first in NH. She was also Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she was the Opera Coach for UNLV’s Opera Theatre. During the summers, she has worked at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, Vivace Vilnius (Lithuania), the Dolora Zajick’s Institute for Young Dramatic Voices, the BU Tanglewood Institute Opera Intensive (BUTI), American Institute for Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, and at the Franco-American Vocal Academy (FAVA) in Salzburg. Recent international concert performances at the Teatro di Musica (Lake Como, Italy), Humboldt University (Berlin), École Normale Supérieure (Lyon, France), Joanneumsviertel Museum (Graz, Austria) and the Schloss Frohnburg (Salzburg). She has been a frequent guest artist at the ‘Fatti ad arte-Musicalis Daunia’ Concert Series, directed by cellist Francesco Mastromatteo (Lucera, Italy).
She holds degrees from the University of Texas at Austin (DMA), New England Conservatory (MM) and the University of Victoria, Canada (BM).
She has had radio appearances on Deutschland Radio, Arizona PBS, WDR3 Kultur Radio, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR Klassik, Munich), Radio Caracas (Venezuela), WORD Madison, WRUV Radio Vermont, WOOL-FM and Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), and can be heard on PARMA Records, Toccata Classics, Albany Records, New World Records, MSR Classics, and ARS Produktion. www.christinajwright.com