Georgi Boykin

GEORGI BOYKIN is a distinguished Bulgarian pianist, organist, and educator. He is an associate professor and head of the Piano Department at the Faculty of Instrumental Music of the “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” National Academy of Music. A graduate of the “Dobrin Petkov” Music School in Plovdiv, he completed his studies with honors in the piano class of Stella Oslekova. He earned his master’s degree (2017) and doctoral degree (2021) at the National Academy of Music in Sofia under Prof. Borislava Taneva, with a dissertation devoted to issues of musical interpretation. His academic and artistic interests focus on the piano and organ, Baroque performance practice, and music pedagogy. He studied organ with Prof. Neva Krasteva and has participated in numerous master classes. He is a laureate of international competitions, including First Prize at the “Johann Sebastian Bach” International Piano Competition in memory of Walter Blankenheim in Saarbrücken (Germany, 2025). He has taken part in the competition three times: at the ninth edition (2016), he received a diploma; at the tenth (2019), he was awarded the “Walter Blankenheim” Prize for the best interpretation of Baroque style on a modern piano; and at the twelfth edition (2025), he won First Prize, joining the select group of the competition’s laureates. He has also received awards at competitions in Athens, Shumen, Sofia, and Niš, including: First Prize at the “Schumann–Brahms” International Piano Competition (Plovdiv, 2008); First Prize at the Niš International Piano Competition (Serbia, 2014); Second Prize at the Tenth “Albert Roussel” International Piano Competition (Sofia, 2014); Third Prize at the “Pancho Vladigerov” International Competition for Pianists and Violinists (Shumen, 2015); First Prize and a Special Prize at the Third National Academic Competition “J. S. Bach and His Contemporaries” (Plovdiv, 2015); and Third Prize at the “From Bach to Jazz” International Piano Competition (Athens, 2018). He maintains an active concert career in Bulgaria and abroad (Greece, Germany, Japan). As a soloist, he has performed piano concertos by J. S. Bach, W. A. Mozart, L. van Beethoven, S. Prokofiev, and F. Poulenc with orchestras in Bulgaria and Germany, including the Vidin Sinfonietta, the Shumen State Symphony Orchestra, the Sliven Philharmonic, the “Sofia Soloists” Chamber Ensemble, the Academic Symphony Orchestra, the Vratsa- Sinfonietta, and orchestras in Saarbrücken, Ottweiler, Weimar, and Würzburg. As an organist, he has given recitals featuring works by Bach, Liszt, and Reger, and has appeared in numerous concerts with “Collegium Lapis Lazuli.” He has performed solo recitals at the Lancaster International Piano Festival in Pennsylvania, USA (2014, 2015), Piano Extravaganza in Sofia (2016), the International Piano Academy in Poros, Greece (2017), and the International Piano Forum in Rhodes, Greece (2018). In September 2017, he undertook a concert tour in Japan, performing in Yokohama, Okinawa, Fukuoka, and Okayama. He is actively involved in organizing and adjudicating national music forums and competitions for young performers, including the “Stella Oslekova National Competition for Young Pianists” and the “Play Bach” online competition. He has led master classes in Sofia and Plovdiv.