IVO VENKOV (b. 1969) is Professor of Conducting at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp and Artistic Director and Conductor of the Sint‑Paulus Camerata. He won First Prize at the Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition in Frankfurt and Second Prize at the inaugural International Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition.
He has appeared as guest conductor with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra; the opera houses of Frankfurt, Meiningen and Wuppertal; the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra; the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra; the Sofia Philharmonic; the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra; the Plovdiv and Ruse Philharmonic Orchestras; the Flemish Radio Orchestra and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic; the Residentie Orkest in The Hague; the Rotterdam Philharmonic; the Shizuoka Festival Symphony Orchestra; the Moravian Philharmonic; the Slovak Symphony Orchestra; among others. He has also served as Assistant Conductor to Walter Weller at the Royal Flemish Philharmonic and to the distinguished maestro Jaap van Zweden.
Since 2005, he has been actively engaged in recording projects with the Phaedra label. With the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, he has recorded Jules Strens’ Ensoria, as well as works by several Flemish composers, including Geoff Van Hove, August De Boeck, Van Loey, and Lodewijk Mortelmans.
Ivo Venkov was born in Ruse into a family of musicians. He began playing the piano at the age of four and gave his first public concert at seven. He graduated from the Prof. Veselin Stoyanov National School of Arts in Ruse, and pursued simultaneous studies at the Theoretical and Instrumental Faculties of the Prof. Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music in Sofia. He earned a master’s degree in Opera and Symphonic Conducting (under Prof. Ivan Vulpe, Prof. Vassil Kazandjiev, and Prof. Dr. Ivan Bakalov), choral conducting (under Prof. Vasil Arnaudov, Prof. Krum Maximov, and Prof. Georgi Robev), and piano (under Prof. Lily Atanasova and Assoc. Prof. Teodora Nestorova).
While still a student, he was appointed conductor at the Varna Opera, where he made his debut with Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers). He continued his studies in Vienna, Graz, and Weimar, specializing with Prof. Božič, Prof. Armenián, Prof. Zeller, and Prof. Günter Kahlert.
He has undertaken concert tours across Europe — Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland — as well as in South Africa, Japan, and other countries.
