MARTIN PANTELEEV (born 1976) grew up in a family of prominent musicians and began his violin lessons at the age of 4 under Angelina Atanasova at the Lyubomir Pipkov National School of Music. His talent was soon appreciated by Prof. Vladi Simeonov, who invited him to be concertmaster of the Pioneer Youth Philharmonic. It is it the young violinist gave his first concerts in the country and internationally with.
He graduated with honours from the Prof. Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music with majors in violin, conducting and composition in the classes of Prof. Joseph Radionov, Prof. Plamen Djouroff and Prof. Alexander Tekeliev. During his studies he won a number of competitions and at the age of 19 was invited to perform in the international orchestra “Philharmonia of the Nations” by its founder Prof. Justus Frantz, where he later made his first appearances as conductor and composer. His works began to be performed regularly in prestigious forums such as the festivals in Schleswig-Holstein, Rheingau, etc. In 2004 he became principal guest conductor of the Philharmonia of the Nations, with which he gave concerts all over the world.
The same year he made his debut with the Sofia Philharmonic. After a number of remarkable performances, in 2011 he was invited to lead Bulgaria’s iconic orchestra and became the youngest principal conductor in its history. In the same year he conducted the Cape Town Philharmonic on a tour of the USA, the first visit of an African orchestra there and a historic moment in relations between the two countries. In 2012, he became principal guest conductor of that ensemble. In the following seasons Martin Panteleev worked with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra – Amsterdam, and the English Chamber Orchestra, The National Symphony Orchestra of Buenos Aires, Israel Symphony Orchestra of Beersheva, the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra of Guadalajara (Mexico), the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (China) and many others. He has also been invited to Halifax, Canada and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Winner of a number of prestigious awards, in 2012 Martin Panteleev received the “Golden Muse”, in 2013 – the award for active artistic activity of the Bulgarian National Radio, and in 2014 Sofia Municipality awarded him with the Sofia special prize.
Since 2018 he has been the principal guest conductor of the Würth Philharmoniker, with which he has given numerous concerts at prestigious festivals in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain and Italy. He has worked with soloists such as Mischa Maisky, Thomas Hampson, Anna Netrebko, Cecilia Bartoli, to name but a few. In the same year, he also became the artistic director of the North Rhine-Westphalia Festival Orchestra, with whose soloist, the Hungarian virtuoso József Lendvay, they premiered Panteleev’s new piece “Rococo Impressions”.
In 2019, he received invitations from numerous orchestras around the world, highlighted by his debut with the Israel Symphony Orchestra, with whom he performed five concerts in Tel Aviv, Rishon LeZion, Ashdod, Haifa and Ashkelon.
His compositional output includes three symphonies for large symphony orchestra, the Cantata for Orchestra, Chorus and Soloists “Planetary Traces” , Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra and others.
Martin Panteleev is also involved in the field of chamber music. He is the initiator, founder and musical director of the festivals Chamber Music Days, Barth (2002), Owingen Musiktage (2018), Balchik Classic Days Festival (2010).