Bojidara Kouzmanova
Violinist
Bulgaria
First Prize Winner of The Bela Bartok Competition, Ms. Kouzmanova studied at The University of Performing Arts in Vienna, and has performed as soloist with The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and Sofia Symphony Orchestra, among others. Ms, Kouzmanova has appeared in Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and in the USA. Several composers (R. Dimitrov, M. Kerer, P. Liakakis, J. Purgina, P. Richter, T. Wally, among others) dedicated violin compositions to her, some of which she has premiered. Her first CD recording was in 1996 with Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Nayden Todorov, playing the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 and The Mendelssohn Violin concerto. She has also recorded the violin concerti of Karen De Pastel, Sergei Prokofiev and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and has done several CDs with works for violin and piano, recorded with the violin Stradivarius "Da Vinci" (1725) on loan to her from Professor Dietmar Machold. Miss Kouzmanova has played with different famous instruments, most of them given to her by Machold. She had the opportunity to play the Stradivarius "Red Diamond" - 1732, "Da Vinci" - 1725, Stradivarius 1717, Stradivarius "Ex Nachez" 1716, Stradivarius "Reynier" 1681, Pietro Guarneri 1735, Guarneri del Gesu 1741, and several new made violins including a Gerlinde Reutterer 2004, Greiner. Since 2008, she plays her own instrument made by Matthieu Devuyst.