Benedicte Palko
Pianist Benedicte Palko was born in Stavanger, Norway, of Norwegian-Hungarian parents, and is since 2002 permanently living in Seville, Spain. She chooses her musical projects with care, always true to her heart, and with a desire to live a profound musicianship in her relation with the audience and her musical partners.
Benedicte Palko is well known for her technically brilliance and beauty of tone and melody. Her ability of an honest and profound music-making has not gone unnoticed among audiences and press reviews wherever she performs. Chamber music is her great passion, inspired by her teacher, the legendary pianist György Sebök.
Benedicte Palko is a demanded chamber musician, and has shown herself as a highly appreciated partner for many renown musicians. She performs in duos with violinist Philippe Graffin, violist William Coleman and cellist Lluís Claret. She also collaborates with violinists Nicolas Dautricourt, Mirijam Contzen and Esther Hoppe, as well as performing together with the young, Spanish violinist Antonio Viñuales and cellist Salvador Bolón, in duos o piano quartet. Giving support to the young generation of musicians is one of her main interests.
Benedicte Palko is the founder and artistic leader of the “International Chamber Music Festival Joaquín Turina”, based in Seville, Spain. Here she has performed with musicians such as Tanja Becker-Bender, Kristóf Baráti, Tobias Feldmann, Gary Hoffman, István Vardái, Julian Steckel, Torleif Thedéen, James Dunham, Yura Lee, Lise Berthaud, José Luis Estellés, Gordan Nikoliç, KUSS Quartet...
In June 2019 Benedicte presented a new, annual chamber music project in combination with literature and gastronomy in the isle Bru, next to her hometown Stavanger, Norway, called PALKO & Co: www.benedictepalko.com/palkoco.
Benedicte has given recitals, chamber music concerts and appeared as soloist with orchestra in Scandinavia, Finland, Russia, Latvia, Holland, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy, Spain and USA. In December 2018 Benedicte made her debut in Asia, where she was invited to perform as a Guest Leader in the chamber music series of the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra in South Korea. Benedicte continued her relation with South Korea in 2019 with great success, performing chamber music concerts in Daejeon, and giving masterclasses at the Korea National University of Arts in Seoul.
Benedicte Palko has a sincere pedagogical interest and is very active as a teacher. In Seville she has her own piano class with students from all over Andalusia and Spain, and she is a professor at MUSIKENE, the superior conservatory of the Basque country, in chamber music. Her students, pianists as well as chamber music groups, are among the finest young musicians in Spain of today. She is also invited to give master classes regularly in different Universities/Superior level in Spain, and in the Erasmus exchange program of universities in Europe. Her students, pianists as well as chamber music groups, are among the finest young musicians in Spain of today. In April 2017 she was a jury member of the renowned 59th International piano competition “PREMIO JAÉN”, and she is also invited to be the President of the jury of the annual chamber music competition “Abate Marchena” in Utrera, Spain.
Benedicte Palko studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music with prof. Einar Steen-Nökleberg. She continued her studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with Prof. Jose Ribera, where she completed diploma and soloist studies with her official soloist debut in November 1998. A US-Fulbright Foundation scholarship made it possible for Benedicte Palko to study with the legendary pianist and teacher Distinguished Prof. György Sebök for 2 years at Indiana University School of Music Bloomington, USA. Here she completed the highest diploma for soloists, Artist Diploma. She has recorded the Sonata in f-minor by Prokofieff and preludes for violin and piano by Shostakovich with violinist Sakari Tepponen, as well as she appears in numerous live recordings for the National Spanish, and Norwegian Radio.