Zornitsa Ilarionova

ZORNITSA ILARIONOVA has successfully established herself on the major stages as a soloist and chamber musician by performing at the Gaveau Hall in Paris, in the studios of the French National Radio for the "France Music" broadcast, in the concert hall of the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome (debut in 2022), on stage in Dubai within the framework of the "International Music Festival and Academy of Classical Music in the Middle East". She has been a guest soloist of the Sofia Philharmonic, the Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra, Cantus Firmus Orchestra, Sofia Soloists Chamber Orchestra, Kaliningrad Philharmonic, Izmir and Antalya Symphony Orchestras, Bashkent Chamber Orchestra, etc. She has performed as a chamber musician and in solo recitals in the programmes of the Encuentro de Santander International Festival in Spain, the European Music Festival in Sofia, the Teatro di Marcello International Festival in Rome, the Mimas International Music Festival in Procida (European Capital of Culture 2022), the Sofia Music Weeks, the Apollonia Arts Festival and many others. Zornitsa Ilarionova is a graduate of the Lubomir Pipkov National Music School in the violin class of her mother, Blagorodna Taneva. She continued her studies with Prof. Zachar Bron at the Queen Sofia School of Music in Madrid, studied with Prof. Mario Hossen at New Bulgarian University, specialized with Prof. Pavel Vernikov at the Santa Cecilia Academy of Music in Bergamo. She has also participated in master classes of a number of renowned musicians and pedagogues, such as Augustin Dumay, Michaela Martin, Dora Schwarzberg, Midori, Julian Rachlin, Ivry Gitlis and others. She is a laureate of prestigious international competitions and forums including the Rising Stars International Competition in Berlin, the Manhattan International Competition for Young Performers in New York, the Johann Sebastian Bach International Competition in Japan, the Rudolf Barshai Competition in St. Petersburg, the Rudolf Kreutzer Competition in Belgium and the Young Performers Competition in Como, Italy. In 2014, at a ceremony at the El Pardo Royal Palace in Madrid, she was awarded the prize for the most promising young violinist in the department of Prof. Zachar Bron, presented personally by Her Majesty Queen Sofia. As a laureate of the violin competition named after the famous Turkish violinist Suna Can, which is held every three years in Ankara, Zornitsa Ilarionova was invited as a member of the jury (2022). She has been awarded the Crystal Lyre in the Young Artist category (2015), the Golden Quill for her contribution to Bulgarian culture (2021), and the Award for Excellence in the Arts from the Ministry of Culture. The listeners of the Bulgarian National Radio and the Allegro Vivace programme awarded her two prizes from the national poll "Musician of the Year" - for active artistic activity and for Ensemble of the Year with pianist Martina Tabakova (2019). She holds master classes in Austria, Spain, Turkey, Singapore and Bulgaria.