Irina Zahharenkova is one of the most outstanding Estonian keyboard performers today. She has won first prizes from major international piano competitions as the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition (Leipzig, Germany, 2006), Alessandro Casagrande International Piano Competition (Terni, Italy, 2006), International Competition George Enescu (Bucharest, Romania, 2005), and Jaén International Piano Contest (Jaén, Spain, 2004). In 2008 she became a prize-winner in the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv, Israel. Irina has also been a laureate in Prague Spring competition in Czech Republic (2005) – as a harpsichordist, and in Festival van Vlaanderen competition in Bruges, Belgium (2004) – as fortepianist. She was a winner of the 2007 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship Award.