SVETLIN ROUSSEV’s brilliant career took flight after winning First Prize at the inaugural International Competition in Sendai in 2001, where he also received the Audience Awards for Best Performances of Bach and Paganini. The charismatic virtuoso has since graced many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including the Tchaikovsky and Bolshoi Theatres in Moscow, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Seoul Arts Center, Salle Pleyel, UNESCO, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Théâtre du Châtelet, Cité de la Musique, and Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, the Béla Bartók Concert Hall in Budapest, Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Konzerthaus Berlin, Kirchner Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and the UN Palace in Geneva.
He is a regular soloist with leading orchestras such as the Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Seoul and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestras, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the George Enescu Philharmonic (Bucharest), the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, among others. Across the United States, Latin America, Asia, and Europe, he has performed under the baton of Myung-Whun Chung, Leon Fleisher, Yehudi Menuhin, Yuzo Toyama, Marek Janowski, Emmanuel Krivine, François-Xavier Roth, Jonathan Nott, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Dennis Russell Davies, Lionel Bringuier, Emil Tabakov, Nayden Todorov, and many others.
Since 2000, Roussev has also led and conducted various ensembles and orchestras in Bulgaria, France, Poland, South Korea, Japan, and Sweden.
As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with artists of exceptional caliber, including Myung-Whun Chung, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Yeol Eum Son, Peter Frankl, Ralf Gothóni, Jean-Marc Luisada, Bertrand Chamayou, Jean-Philippe Collard, Antoine Tamestit, Maxim Rysanov, Gary Hoffman, Gautier Capuçon, Jian Wang, François Leleux, Paul Meyer, Nikolaj Znaider, and Ning Feng. He is also the founder of the Roussev–Salk–Rozanova Piano Trio.
His repertoire spans from Baroque to contemporary music, and he is especially acclaimed for his interpretations of Slavic and Bulgarian composers. Following the success of his recording of works by Pancho Vladigerov with pianist Elena Rozanova for Ambroisie, Roussev recorded Hartmann’s Concerto funebre with the Orchestre d’Auvergne, and sonatas by Grieg and Medtner with pianist Frédéric D’Oria-Nicolas. His album Fire and Ice, featuring concertos by Sibelius and Vladigerov with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Emil Tabakov, was released by the French labels Integral and Fondamenta.
In 2016, DECCA released a recording of piano trios by Mendelssohn (No. 1) and Dvořák (Thoughts), performed by Roussev, Elena Rozanova, and cellist François Salk. This was followed by recordings of works by Ysaÿe (for Musique en Wallonie) and Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole (for Arcantus), conducted by Jean-Jacques Kantorow. Roussev also recorded two albums with Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son – Midnight Bells (2018) and Love Music (2024), released by YESM & ART and Naïve. In recent years, he has released recordings of all Tchaikovsky’s works for violin and orchestra with the Sofia Philharmonic conducted by Horia Andreescu, as well as works by Philippe Chamois and Eugène Ysaÿe with the orchestras of Douai (France) and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège, under the direction of Jean-Jacques Kantorow and Pablo González, alongside numerous chamber music recordings.
Since 2008, Svetlin Roussev has been a professor at the prestigious Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris. He has also taught at the Geneva Conservatory and regularly gives masterclasses around the world. He serves as Artistic Director of the GoingHome Project in South Korea and has been an Artistic Advisor to the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra.
Roussev began his musical training at an early age with his mother, a violin teacher at the music school in Ruse, and later studied with Anelia Popova and Alexi Draganov. At 15, he was accepted into the Paris Conservatory, where he studied with Gérard Poulet, Devi Erlih, and Jean-Jacques Kantorow. After three years, he was unanimously awarded First Prize in both violin and chamber music, after which he entered the postgraduate program.
He has received awards from the Long-Thibaud International Competition, as well as competitions in Indianapolis, Melbourne, and others. In 2006, he was named Musician of the Year by Bulgarian National Radio and has received the Crystal Lyre Award three times (2007, 2016, and 2019). In 2018, he was named an Honorary Citizen of Ruse, and in 2019, he received the Honorary Badge of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria.
Svetlin Roussev plays a 1720 Amati–Stradivarius violin, generously provided by Amundi. In October 2024, the Bulgarian state entrusted him with the 1716 Stradivarius violin Baron Wittgenstein.
