Irina Lyakhovskaya was born in 1977 in St. Petersburg, Russia. She graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatoire in 1999 where she studied with Alexander Sandler and gave numerous public performances; both solo and with orchestra. In 2000, Irina was invited to continue her studies in England as a postgraduate student at Trinity College of Music with John Bingham.
In June 2003 Irina won 1st Prize in the TCM Associate's Soloist Competition with her interpretation of the Schumann Piano Concerto. She has given many performances in England, including a solo recital at St. Martin in the Fields, Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto in St. John's Smith Square and Brahms's 1st Piano Concerto at both the Blackheath Concert Halls and most recently at the famous Cadogan Hall in Slone Square. She has toured extensively; performing in Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Portugal, France, Italy and Greece working internationally as a soloist and a chamber musician with her duo partner Elenor Percy.
In her duo, with violinist Eleanor Percy, Irina has given many performances at prestigious venues, including the Wigmore Hall and The Royal Opera House. In 2003 their debut CD was released by the Russian label IMLab. This features works by Mozart, Brahms and Prokofiev. Subsequently they were asked to record the complete Mozart Violin and Piano sonatas for the historic Russian label Melodiya. The first volume of the collection, the Mannheim, Paris and Salzburg Sonatas has just been released.