SYON NAJMAN is born in 2002 in Antwerp, Belgium in an international family. His father is Belgian, his mother is Bulgarian, he also has Czech roots. At the age of 6, he began playing the cello in the class of Daniela Cherpokova at the Lyubomir Pipkov National Music School in Sofia. He later studied with Prof. Romain Gariou at the L’Haÿ-les-Roses Conservatory in Paris, and is currently a student at the Berlin University of the Arts in the class of Prof. Jens Peter Mainz. Sion has participated in masterclasses with Stefan Popov, Miklós Perényi, László Fenyő, Jérôme Pernaut, Troels Svane, François Guy, Maximilian Hornung, and others.
He has won first prizes at international competitions such as the Karl Davidov International Cello Competition in Kuldīga (Latvia) and Concertino Praga Competition (Czech Republic). He is also a laureate of the David Popper International Violoncello Competition, Cantus Firmus and Dobrin Petkov Musical Competitions, Young Virtuosos International Competition, etc.
He has been nominated as Young Musician of the Year by the Bulgarian National Radio and is a scholar of the Stoyan Kambarev Foundation, Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and Paul Hindemith Society in Berlin.
Chamber music seamlessly became part of Syon’s musical – he is a member of the Infinito Trio and the Kodam string quartets (with which he won first prizes at the Concertino Praga Competition and Hopes. Talents. Masters Competition in Dobrich) and Varyon (which won first prizes at competitions in Japan and Germany). His partnership violinist Lora Markova resulted in first prices at Music and Earth Competition and Cantus Firmus Competition in Bulgaria and the Special Price of the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation at the Concertino Praga Competition. He has participated in various projects with the pianist Veneta Neynska and violinist Liya Petrova.
He has played as a soloist with the Czech National Radio Orchestra, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, Pleven Philharmonic Orchestra, Sliven Philharmonic Orchestra and Varna State Opera Orchestra, Syon has performed at festivals in Europe and Japan, as well as in the European tour of the renowned contemporary music ensemble, Ensemble Modern. In 2024, he was a soloist in the New Year’s Concert conducted by Emil Tabakov at the National Palace of Culture and made his solo debut at the Berlin Philharmonic with Robert Schumann’s Violoncello Concerto in partnership with Symphonietta 92.
He was selected as an artist for the Villa Musica Rheinland-Pfalz program, which provided him with an Italian violoncello from the Galliano family, crafted in Naples around 1780–1790.
