Ivan Kozhuharov

In the course of the impressive conducting career he has enjoyed for more than thirty years, IVAN KOZHUHAROV has conducted more than 1300 concerts and opera performances with virtually every large orchestra of Bulgaria and a number of foreign ensembles. He has toured to more than twenty-one countries across four continents. His repertoire spans more than fifty operas and over 600 works by 180 authors. Born in 1950 in Tryavna, Bulgaria, Ivan Kozhuharov graduated from the viola class at the School of Music in Ruse, studied for two years at the Professor Pantcho Vladigerov National Academy of Music and then continued his training at the Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg.) He studied operatic and symphonic conducting with professors I. E. Sherman, S. Rabinovitch, Arvid and Maris Yansons and graduated with honours in 1976. His graduation performance of Mozart‘s „Marriage of tfigaro” was filmed for the Soviet television. After his return to Bulgaria he worked as conductor and principal conductor of the Burgas Opera House, principal conductor and artistic director of Burgas Philharmonic, Music Director and principal conductor of the Opera and Philharmonic Society of Burgas. Alongside these commitments, he was the conductor of the Izmir State Opera, Turkey (1999- 2001), a permanent guest conductor of the Dmitry Shostakovich Philharmonic in St. Petersburg (from 1997), the Ankara Presidential Symphony Orchestra (2001) and the Prima La Musica Orchestra of Aalst, Belgium (since 2005). In 1979 Ivan Kozhuharov competed as semi-finalist at the Herbert von Karajan Competition in Berlin and in 1980 became a laureate and the winner of the Bella Bartok Grand Prize from the Third International Conducting Competition of the Hungarian Television in Budapest. In 1981 he took part in a film, dedicated to Bela Bartok‘s 100th anniversary, a co- production of Hungary, the United States and Canada. Since the early 1990s, he has been conducting the New Chamber Orchestra and the Camerata Classica Orchestra and in partnership with them realized a number of recordings for the Divertimento label in Vienna. For his contribution to the cultural life of Burgas and his long-lasting conducting activity, Ivan Kozhuharov was bestowed with the title of Honorary Citizen of Burgas.