Raya Marinova, founder

My greatest reward is seeing my students evolve into confident, polished, and expressive young artists.

Recognised as one of Christchurch’s premier piano teachers, Raya is highly sought after for her exceptional ability to develop young pianists into award-winning, musically mature performers. With over 20 years of teaching experience, she has consistently nurtured talent from the ground up—transforming dedicated students into competition winners, scholarship recipients, and confident artists.

Raya specialises in working with gifted and highly motivated students, offering a rigorous, tailored approach to technical development, musical expression, and artistic refinement. Her students regularly achieve top prizes in piano competitions and are frequently awarded highly competitive music scholarships, including in Australia. Raya's students consistently pass graded piano exams with distinction through to the Diploma level.

Raya holds a Bachelor in music degree (magna cum laude) from the prestigious Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, where she studied under internationally renowned pianist and pedagogue Bernadene Blaha. Raya had additional studies with acclaimed pianists and teachers Antoinette Perry and Jim McCormick, and received coaching from Earl Wild, known as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th Century.  Raya has worked with numerous other top pianists and her pianistic lineage traces directly to Franz Liszt through several of her mentors.

An accomplished performer, Raya has appeared in numerous solo and chamber music concerts—including live broadcasts—and has performed at venues such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Zipper Hall, and Mayman Hall. She has also acted as a competition adjudicator in Los Angeles.

Since relocating to Christchurch in 2019, Raya has continued to build a studio that prioritises excellence, discipline, and artistic growth. Drawing from her own experience mastering some of the solo piano repertoire’s most challenging and monumental works, she equips students with a strong technical foundation, deep musical insight, and the confidence to perform at the highest level.

Raya is an Artist in Residence at The Piano.

Raya also holds JD and LLM degrees and practiced law in California before relocating to Christchurch. She is admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand.

Outside of music, Raya enjoys travel and martial arts, which keep her curious and grounded.