The Swiss-Latvian violinist Ilva Eigus, born in 2007, is an exceptional talent. She received her first violin lessons at the age of three from Liana Tretiakova, who taught Ilva for 12 years at the Zakhar Bron School of Music in Zurich. Her current mentor is Professor Marc Bouchkov, with whom Ilva studies at the Pre-College of the Royal Conservatory of Liège in Belgium. She has also received musical inspiration from, among others, Zakhar Bron, Ingolf Turban, Sergei Krylov, Priya Mitchell, Janine Jansen, Sadao Harada, Marie Chilemme, Nobuko Imai, and Augustin Dumay.

Ilva is a scholarship holder of the Verbier Festival Academy, the Seiji Ozawa Academy, the Music Academy in Liechtenstein, and IMS Prussia Cove, England. In 2019–2020, she was supported by the Pierino Ambrosoli Foundation.

Ilva made her solo debut with orchestra at the age of eight and has since performed with prominent orchestras such as the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Musikkollegium Winterthur, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic of Prague, and the Bodensee Philharmonic of Constance. She has performed in concert halls such as the Great Hall of the Tonhalle Zurich, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, and the Mozarteum Salzburg, as well as at festivals including Verbier, Gstaad, Enjoy Jazz Mannheim, Odessa Classics, and Festival de Musique de Menton.

She enjoys engaging with contemporary music and has premiered works by Daniel Schnyder, Nik Bärtsch, and Samy Moussa.

Ilva is a multiple first prize winner of the Swiss Youth Music Competition and has won numerous awards at international competitions. Her most recent achievements include first prizes at the Arthur Grumiaux Competition (2024) and the Grunewald Competition in Berlin (2024), as well as the Rotary Prize of the Verbier Festival (2023).

Ilva’s playing is distinguished by precise intonation, depth, and artistic maturity. She plays an Omobono Stradivari from the year 1707, generously loaned to her by the Habisreutinger-Huggler-Coray Foundation.

In 2023, Ilva became an ambassador for the Fondation ART-THERAPIE, which supports art therapy programs for young people in Switzerland. In her free time, she enjoys photography.