Ivan Penchev

IVAN PENCHEV has performed with Bulgarian and foreign orchestras, also as concertmaster, under the baton of Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, Karl St. Clair, Rossen Milanov, Neville Marriner, and Emil Tabakov. He plays the violin in the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and is the principal violist of the Quarto Quartet. He graduated from the Music School of Sofia and the National Academy of Music in the class of Yosif Radionov. He has participated in master classes with Max Rostal, Vladimir Spivakov, Svetlana Bezrodnaya, and Bernhard Hartog. He has performed as a soloist in concerts of J. S. Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven. He is a laureate of chamber music competitions: "250 Years of Mozart" (2006), "Austrian Music Competition" (2008), Marin Goleminov (2008), as well as for violin soloists: Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition, Kocian Violin Competition, Svetoslav Obretenov Competition.