Sofia-born ALEXANDER SOMOV studied in Stephan Rounevski‘s cello class at the Lyubomir Pipkov National School of Music in his native town. At the age of fifteen he made his debut with concerts in Bulgaria and Germany, recorded Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, premiered the Concerto de España by Angel Escudero while on a concert tour in Spain with the National Youth Orchestra, Bulgaria. After winning several national competitions he was invited as a guest performer to Greece, Italy, Serbia and Israel.
At the invitation of Prof. Stefan Popov he continued his studies at London‘s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where in 1998 he became the first East European winner of Guildhall‘s highest prize, the Golden Medal. He won the first prizes at a number of international competitions such as the Alexander Tansman Competition (Lodz, Poland), POSK (London) and the Royal Overseas League. These were followed by guest performances of the cello concertos of Dvořák, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Elgar, Haydn, Boccherini, Strauss, Beethoven, Brahms, Gulda and Turnage with orchestras such as the Northern Sinfonia, the Strasbourg Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Achern, Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Sofia and Varna Philharmonics, among others, and under the direction of Thierry tfischer, Paul McCreesh, Thomas Zehetmair, Mark Albrecht, David Perry, Peter Oundjian, Lionel Bringuier, Sir James MacMillan, Theodor Guschlbauer, Vassil Kazandzhiev, Martin Panteleev, Yordan Dafov, Milen Nachev and others. He has played chamber music in partnership with Thomas Zehetmeir, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Tasmin Little, Boris Garlitsky, John York, Nathan Williamson, Bogdana Popova, Lucy Jeal, Venera Bojkova and Manfredo Gracia at prominent venues across the UK, tfrance, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Cyprus, Mexico and Bulgaria.
Since 2002, Alexander Somov has been constantly receiving invitations to guest perform as principal cellist with the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Scottish and English Chamber Orchestras. He is currently the „Violoncelle Super Soliste“ – permanenr cello soloist – of the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra and a professor at the Strasbourg Academy, and he also gives regular masterclasses in Sofia, Strasbourg, Ringamala (Sweden) and tflaine (France.)
He has released solo recordings for the Naxos/Marko Polo and Gega New labels, for the BBC, Bulgarian National Television, Bulgarian National Radio, the Polish Radio and Radio Valencia.