Since winning the Debut Audience Prize in 2006, Dutch/Russian pianist DARIA VAN DEN BERCKEN (b. 1979) has been performing widely in The Netherlands in all the main concert halls and at festivals. Recent solo engagements include recitals in Europe, USA, Canada, Jordan, Indonesia, New Zealand, Brasil, Australia and Japan. During her studies Ms van den Bercken won first prizes in several competitions, including the 2005 Vriendenkrans Competition of the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. In September 2010, she was finalist in the 1st International Paul Badura-Skoda Piano Competition in Spain. In 2007 Ms van den Bercken made her debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra performing Clara Schumann’s Piano concerto. National newspapers talked about ‘Daria van den Bercken’s strikingly strong debut’. She returned to this orchestra in the ’08/09 season under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin and furthermore made her debut with the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra, the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as performing with several other Dutch orchestras. Ms van den Bercken has also worked with Christoph Poppen, JoAnn Falletta, Ivan Meylemans and Shi-Yeon Sung. In 2009 she appeared for the third time with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, playing Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques. In recent seasons, she also appeared in such music festivals as the Delft Chamber Music Festival, The Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival, the Stift Festival, Virada Cultural Sao Paulo and the Grachtenfestival in Amsterdam. Ms van den Bercken finished her studies in Bloomington, Indiana (USA, 2002) with Menahem Pressler and Leonard Hokanson, and at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Mila Baslawskaja and Naum Grubert. Masterclasses and additional study with Murray Perahia, Leon Fleisher, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Marie-Françoise Bucquet and Alicia de Larrocha have been important to her musical development. In addition to her solo performances, Ms van den Bercken is an active chamber musician, often performing with singers and ensembles. She regularly gives children’s concerts all around the Netherlands and teaches at Escola Esproarte, a school that is part of the adopted Venezuelan system El Sistema in Portugal.  Her project “Handel At The Piano“ in which she plays craned at about 20/30 meters from the earth, is aimed at getting a worldwide audience acquainted with the keyboards works of George Frideric Handel. In January 2012 she recorded a disc of these works for future release.