Evgeni Bozhanov

EVGENI BOZHANOV was born in Ruse. He started playing the piano at the age of 6. He studied under Evgeny Zhelyazkov at the National School of Arts "Prof. Vesselin Stoyanov" in Rousse (Bulgaria). From 2001 to 2006, he studied with Boris Bloch at the Folkwang Hochschule Essen and from 2006, when he turned 17, he continued his studies with Georg Friedrich Schenck at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf. He made his public debut when he was twelve, playing a Mozart piano concerto. Among his numerous awards are those from the competitions "Svetoslav Obretenov" and "Dimitar Nenov" in Bulgaria (1996, 1997), the first prize at the International Competition "Frederic Chopin" in Varna (1999). ), first prize at the Jeunesses Musicales competition in Bucharest (2000), followed by first prize at the Karl Bochstein International Piano Competition in Essen, Germany (2006). His international career started after he won prizes at several competitions during his studies in Germany . He got the second Sviatoslav Richter Prize (the first not being awarded ) in Moscow (2008). He draw the attention with his charismatic performance and got to the final circle as a finalist at the Van Cliburn Competition in the United States (2009), where he received a special award for chamber music. The next year he got a second prize at the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels, Belgium (2010) and fourth prize at the Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw (2010) - although Bozhanov was one of the clear audience favorites, he was not awarded the top prize, which led to a controversial debate in the Polish press and spontaneous invitations from the major Polish concert promoters and orchestras. In the summer of 2011 he was invited to open the International Chopin Festival in Warsaw with Chopin's First Piano Concerto and recital. In 2010/11 Evgeni Bozhanov gave concerts in Brussels and toured Japan, where he performed Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto and Chopin's First Piano Concerto. With the National Orchestra of the Italian Radio RAI he performed at the 3rd edition of the Abu Dhabi Classics Festival. He has given recitals at the international music festivals Sofia Music Weeks and Varna Summer. He participates in the Lille Piano Festival, the La Roque d'Anthéron Festival, the Bad Kissingen Summer Festival, etc. In the following seasons he made his debuts at the Musikverein in Vienna, Suntory Hall in Tokyo with the Deutsche Staatsorchester-Berlin, the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, the Royal Festival Hall in London and the Tonhalle Düsseldorf. He has given recitals in Munich, Essen, Aachen and Cracow, as well as at the Schubertiade Vilabertran (Spain), the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon and the Serate Musicali in Milan, among others. He is soloist of the London Symphony Orchestra, the "Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino", the Chamber Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio in Munich, etc. In recent years he has given recitals in Munich, Porto, Warsaw, Lisbon, Toulouse, Salzburg and Milan. He has played at the piano festival in Brescia and Bergamo He performs with the Vienna Ensemble (soloists of the Vienna Philharmonic) at the Musikverein and with the Belgian National Orchestra. With the Hiogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra under the baton of Yutaka Sado, his fourth tour of Japan in 2019 culminates in a recital at Suntory Hall in Tokyo. He has performed with the Athens State Orchestra at the Ghent Flanders Festival, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, the Liverpool Philharmonic, and the Tuscanini Philharmonic in Parma, Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, Tonkünstler Orchester in Vienna, Slovak Philharmonic, Haydn Orchestra - Bolzano, recital in Miami, concert with the Houston Symphony. On March 25, 2021, the Sofia Philharmonic broadcast online the joint performance of Evgeni Bozhanov and Marta Argerich in the Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra by Francis Poulenc.