Petra Somlai was born in Hungary where she graduated in conducting and piano performance from the Bela Bartok Conservatory (Budapest) and completed her modern piano degree at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music (Budapest) in 2007. During these years the focus of her interests gradually turned towards authentic interpretation on period instruments. She pursued her studies in fortepiano and harpsichord with David Ward (England) and at the Royal Conservatory of Amsterdam and The Hague under the direction of Fabio Bonizzoni, Menno van Delft and Bart van Oort. She performs regularly at festivals in Utrecht, Bodensee, Tartu, Bruges, Irsee, Eszterhaza, and Boston and gives concerts all over Europe, USA and in Japan. Besides solo recitals and chamber music she is often invited to play as a soloist with orchestras, and as a continuo player in baroque and classical opera projects.
In 2010 she won the first prize and the special public prize at the International Fortepiano Competition in Bruges (Belgium) and received the Junior Prima Primissima national award of Hungary as an outstanding young artist.
Since fall 2013 she is Professor of Early Keyboards at the University of North Texas in Denton (USA) and is currently working on several musicological research projects.

Forschungsprojekt
Beethovens «Fantasie»