Bio

Lulwa Al Shamlan is a Kuwaiti-Bulgarian pianist. She has performed in various venues across Europe, the USA, Central Asia and the Middle East.

Some notable performances include her appearance with the Uzbekistan State Symphony Orchestra where she performed Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 1 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, as well as a solo recital at the House of Pianos in Dubai, UAE.

Most recently, Lulwa has given solo recitals at the Polish Institute in Sofia, Bulgaria and the CARA Jazz Orchestra of Matosinhos, Portugal.

In September 2023, she performed Grażyna Bacewicz’s Piano Concerto with the Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra.

In 2022, Lulwa performed Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No 2 in Doha, Qatar with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra.

In New York, she has performed in Zankel and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall after winning second prize in the American Protégé Competition and first prize in the Crescendo Competition.

Lulwa has received masterclasses from many renowned pianists, including Vovka Ashkenazy, Matti Raekallio, Ludmil Angelov, Oleg Marshev, Barry Douglas, Michelle Cann, and Christopher Elton.

Awards

In Kuwait, Lulwa was awarded the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Medal for Creative and Distinguished Youth in 2024. She was also awarded the Young Talent Award at the Arab Woman Awards and featured in the accompanying book.

She has performed at venues such as Dar Al Athar Cultural Centre, Abdulhussain Abdulridha Theater and the Jaber Al Ahmad Cultural Centre (Kuwait Opera House).

Lulwa was also invited to play at the opening ceremony of the Kuwaiti pavilion at EXPO Milan 2015. In London, she performed on multiple occasions during the Kuwait Cultural Days in 2016.

Lulwa has achieved numerous prizes in competitions from a young age. She was awarded first prize in the International Festival of the Young Performers of Classical Music in Baku, Azerbaijan. She has also won first prize in the Mid-Somerset Festival in Bath, UK, as well as the most outstanding pianist prize.

Her most recent competition success includes being the winner of The Respighi Prize in Piano 2025 and will therefore perform with the Chamber Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall in the 2026/27 season. She was also the winner of the Dora Zaslavsky Koch Concerto Competition at the Manhattan School of Music and won second prize at the Elevato Piano Competition in Bern, Switzerland.

Education

At the age of eight, Lulwa was accepted into Wells Cathedral School, one of the four specialized music schools in the United Kingdom, where she graduated from in 2019.

She then went on to study at the Manhattan School of Music (MSM) in New York, where she is studying with Dr. Marc Silverman.

Lulwa graduated from MSM with a Bachelor of Music degree in Classical Piano in May 2023 where she was awarded the Roy M. Rubinstein Award given to a graduating female pianist who demonstrates exceptional promise in piano performance.

In May 2025, she graduated with a Master of Music degree in Classical Piano where she was awarded the Hugo Kortschak Award and Helen Cohn Award, both in recognition of outstanding achievement and work in chamber music.

Lulwa is currently studying for her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Classical Piano at MSM.