Ljuba Kalmykova was born 02.04.92, in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. She began to play violin at the age of 6. When she was 12, she moved to Norway. Since 2006 Ljuba had Isaac Schuldman, Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music, as her teacher. From 2008 – 2011 she studied at the Foss Gymnasium in Oslo and at the Barratt – Due Music Institute. From September 2011 she is studying at Vienna Konservatorium and Scuola di Musica di Fiesole with Prof. Pavel Vernikov.
Ljuba has won 1st prizes at all Norwegian national competitions, and performed with several youth orchestras, in Norway and Russia. She played solo with orchestras as Toppen International Symphony orchestra, Barratt-Due Symphony orchestra, Norwegian Youth Soloist Orchestra and Oslo Youth Chamber Orchestra. In 2011 she was also invited, as one of the Barratt-Dues best students, to play in Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ljuba plays also a lot in duo with her sister (Nadia Kalmykova), called Twin Duo. In 2012 they were chosen, to perform under a big concert in Wien Musikverein. Twin Duo won also 1st prizes at national competitions in Norway, and became also finalists of international competition “Traditions and Modernity” and semifinalists of the international “Salieri-Zinetti” Competition in Italy.
She takes part in different music festivals and master classes. Among others: “Astona International”, “Lucca International Masterclasses”, “Valdres International Festival and Academy”, “Norwegian Youth Chamber Music Festival”. She played on master classes with Pavel Vernikov, Dora Schwarzberg, Sergey Stadler, Pierre Amoyal, Robert Rozek and Henning Kraggerud.
Ljuba plays on a Gagliano violin, kindly on loan from Scuola di Musica di Fiesole.