Born in Kiev to a musical family, her initial piano and harp studies took place at the Saint Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Music school. Moving to France with her family at the age of 12, she pursued harp studies with Isabelle Moretti and Fabrice Pierre at the Paris and Lyon Conservatories (CNSMDP and CNSMDL), whilst also training in instrumental pedagogy. She followed master-classes with György Kurtág and Pierre Boulez. In 2001 and 2002 she took part in the Verbier Youth Orchestra and worked with James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Wolfgang Sawallisch.

As a soloist, she appears with the Paris Chamber Orchestra, l’Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, l’Orchestre Les Siècles, playing under such conductors as François-Xavier Roth, Louis Langrée, Kazuki Yamada and Lars Vogt.

She is very interested in period instruments and the history of interpretation. She has been a member of François-Xavier Roth’s period instruments orchestra Les Siècles since its creation in 2003. She gives recitals on 18th century harp, Erard harp and modern harp. She is invited by ensembles such as Collegium 21 (Vaclav Luks), l’Orchestre des Champs Elysées (Philippe Herreweghe), Gli Angeli (Stephan MacLeod), le Concert Spirituel (Hervé Niquet). She also shares chamber music projects with Mireille Delunsch, Marion Tassou, Alexis Kossenko, Béla quartett and others.

A passionate defender of the music of our time, Valeria Kafelnikov joined the Ensemble intercontemporain in 2019. She works with composers such as Frédéric Pattar, Mark André, Miquel Urquiza, Roque Rivas, Claire-Mélanie Sinnhuber, Aurélio Édler-Copes, and many others.

She teaches at the Conservatoire of the 20th arr. in Paris and at the Bordeaux Pôle Supérieur (PESMD Aquitaine), and gives regular master-classes in France and Europe.