After graduating from the M.F. Gnesin School of Music, Sofia Bugayan entered the lyceum at the Rachmaninoff Rostov State Conservatory (class of Professor Sergey Osipenko). Since 1999 she has been a student at the Rostov Conservatoire (class of the same professor). In 2004 she graduated with honours from the S. V. Rachmaninoff Rostov State Conservatory (Academy) and entered a postgraduate course at the Rostov State Conservatoire.
Laureate of international competitions:
1998 - at the International Serebryakov competition (Volgograd);
2000 - the 2nd prize at the 6th International Piano Competition in Andorra;
2001 - a Franco Fuselli Special Award at the 17th International Competition “Valsesia-Musica 2001”
2007 - the 1st Prize at the 2nd International A. Khachaturian Piano Competition (Yerevan).
In 2002, the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation awarded Sofia a presidential scholarship. In 2005 she was awarded the UNESCO-Aschberg for the Artists Grant for an internship at the Banff Centre for the Arts (Banff, Alberta, Canada) between January and March 2006.
In 1996 she gave concerts in Glasgow (Scotland). In 1999 she was invited to perform in Auban, Scotland. In the same year, as part of the celebration of the 90th anniversary of P.A.Serebryakov, she participated in a big gala concert (Volgograd). in 2001, she participated in the festival of contemporary music “Rostov Premieres” in 2001 and 2003, she also was invited to give a solo concert at the opening of the P.A. Serebryakov International Competition in 2002, and repeatedly performed with the Rostov Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. In March 2005, she took part in the 3rd Contemporary Music Festival for the Russian Folk Orchestra “Music of Russia” in Moscow, where she performed “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra” by M.Fuchsman with the Orchestra of Russian Folk Instruments of the Rostov State Philharmonic Society, conducted by K. Khurdayan.
