The virtuoso violinist and conductor Prof. Sascha Popoff was born on July 11, 1899 in the city of Ruse. He was the son of the bandmaster of the 3rd Bdina Regiment, Dimitar Hristov Popov (violinist) from Vidin and the music and singing teacher Mara Popova (pianist). The family moved to Vidin, where he lived until he was 4 years old, when he gave his first violin concerts, after the lessons given to him by his father, in front of friends, relatives and neighbors. The family moved again to Ruse in 1903, and later to Sofia, where his violin teachers were the great musicians and pedagogues Petko Naumov and Josef Schwerner. At the age of eight, he gave his first solo concert and his first musical tour in the country. In 1908, he went to Vienna with his mother and sister and became the teacher of Prof. Karl Pirl and the violin teacher Otokar Ševčík, who, fascinated by his talent, even taught him for free. He continued his studies at the Vienna Conservatory, where he was accepted in 1915. While still a student and after graduating from the conservatory, he gave concerts in all European musical capitals – Petersburg, Odessa, Stockholm, Vienna, Graz, Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Warsaw, Constantinople and 74 German cities, as well as in the “Madison Square Guardian” in New York. During the period 1926-28 alone, he gave over 250 solo concerts and was declared one of the 5 greatest violin virtuosos of his time. In 1928, upon returning to his homeland, his first solo concert was in Vidin. In Bulgaria, he continued his concert activities, but also took up the conductor’s baton, taking over the post of conductor of the newly established Academic Symphony Orchestra, which grew into the Royal Symphony Orchestra in 1935 and was renamed the Sofia State Philharmonic in 1949. He also worked as a violin teacher at the Music Academy in Sofia. In 1936, he parted ways with the violin and devoted himself entirely to the conducting profession. After 1944, he created the Varna /1945/ and Pleven /1953/ Philharmonics.
He was the chief conductor of the Sofia Philharmonic in the period 1945-1956.
In 1956 To everyone’s surprise, he retired and became unemployed, after having toured all European countries with the orchestras he led and received the ovations and recognition of the most demanding musical audience. He created the “Collegium for Chamber Music” orchestra and continued his concert performances, but he missed the big stage. In 1962, he emigrated to Israel, later moved to Egypt and finally settled in Los Angeles, where he was the first Bulgarian to conduct opera performances.
His daughter is the great opera singer Valeri Popova, and Alexandrina Pandatchanska is his granddaughter.
In 1976, his friends organized a concert and accompanying events to celebrate his 75th anniversary. Excited and deeply moved by the upcoming meeting with Bulgaria and with his friends, colleagues and orchestra members, he died of a heart attack on the way to the Los Angeles airport on August 12, 1976.
In 1999, Sascha Popoff’s ashes were brought home and buried in the Sofia Central Cemetery.