Marc Bouchkov
Violin
Belgian violinist of Russian heritage, Mr. Bouchkov is a sophisticated musician of impeccable aplomb and has carved an international career performing with leading orchestras and conductors across Europe. He is one of the most multifaceted and unique artists of the new generation. His orchestral appearances include performances with the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, the HR-Sinfonieorchester and Christoph Eschenbach, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and Philippe Jordan. He has also appeared with the NDR-Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Hessische Rundfunk Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, the Orchestre National de Belgique, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale RAI in Turin, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, and the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra among others, collaborating with conductors such as Stanislav Kochanovsky, Michael Sanderling, Andrey Boreyko, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Dmitry Liss, Christian Arming, Lionel Bringuier, Maxim Vengerov, James Judd, to name but a few.
As an active recitalist, Mr. Bouchkov has performed in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls such as Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Dresden Frauenkirche, Concert Hall of St. Petersburg, Tonhalle Zürich, Munich’s Prinzregententheater, Paris’ Theatre de la Ville, Maison de Radio France, and the Konzerthaus in Berlin among several other venues. A fine chamber musician, he is a regular guest of the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.
Highlights of Mr. Bouchkov’s 2020/2021 season included appearances with Valery Gergiev and the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater, Philippe Jordan and the Munich Philharmonic, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider and the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, Stanislav Kochanovsky and the Hessische Rundfunk Orchestra, Gábor Takács-Nagy and the Verbier Festival Orchestra, as well as recitals and concerts at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Konzerthaus in Berlin, and the Schubertiade in Hohenems. After a bunch of very successful concerts at the Verbier Festival 2021 in Switzerland, and in Montenegro and Greece, Mr. Bouchkov performed with pianist Mao Fujita in Latvia, at the Riga Jurmala Music Festival, and in Georgia at the Tsinandali Festival, where he played five different programs including performances with the pianist and conductor Lahav Shani and with cellist Mischa Maisky. In Autumn 2021 he was invited to perform at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Ludovic Morlot, followed immediately after by an invitation to be ‘artist in residence’ of the orchestra in 2022/2023. During the season 2021/2022 he will appear again with the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev at the Philharmonie de Paris, and with the Orchestra National de Lille, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Lorraine, among others.
Marc Bouchkov’s first recording by Harmonia Mundi is of special significance since it includes two world première pieces by Eugéne Ysaÿe, and two works composed by himself. The album was awarded a Diapason d’Or and a Diapason Découverte as well as nominated for the ICMA 2018 and received tremendous acclaim on Gramophone reviews. The English magazine featured him as “One to Watch “.
Marc Bouchkov’s artistic development has been marked by a string of international awards. He won the first prize at the Montreal International Violin Competition and he is a silver medallist of the Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition. He received the London Music Masters Award, and recently, he has been honored with the music prize of the Kulturstiftung Dortmund.
Marc Bouchkov was born into a family of violinists. He received his first lessons at the age of five from his grandfather. Studies with Claire Bernard and Boris Garlitsky followed. With Mihaela Martin, Marc developed as a Young Soloist in a postgraduate course at the Kronberg Academy. Since October 2018 he is under the musical tutorship of Eduard Wulfson.
Mr. Bouchkov currently serves as professor on the faculty of the Conservatoire Royale de Liège (BE) and the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein. From 2017 to 2019 he taught at the Kronberg Academy (DE) as Artistic Assistant.
Marc Bouchkov plays a Carlo and Michelangelo Bergonzi violin from 1742-44 as a private loan on behalf of Edwulstrad RMIC Ltd.
Plamena Mangova
Piano
Won the second prize at the highly prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2007 and embarked on a brilliant international career, which brought her to almost all corners of the world. She made her studies with Marina Kapatsinskaya at the Sofia State Music Academy in Bulgaria, and then at the Queen Sofia Higher Music School, Madrid with the legendary prof. Dmitri Bashkirov. She also worked, later on, with prof.El Bacha at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium and over the years had received the precious advice of renowned musicians, such as Leon Fleisher, Rosalyn Tureck, Mennahem Pressler, Alicia de Larocha and Andras Schiff. She is as well a Laureate of various other highly prestigious international piano and chamber music competitions, including “Paloma O’Shea” Piano Competition in Santander and “Vittorio Gui” Chamber music Competition in Florence.
Won the second prize at the highly prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2007 and embarked on a brilliant international career, which brought her to almost all corners of the
world. She made her studies with Marina Kapatsinskaya at the Sofia State Music Academy in Bulgaria, and then at the Queen Sofia Higher Music School, Madrid with the legendary
prof. Dmitri Bashkirov. She also worked, later on, with prof.El Bacha at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium and over the years had received the precious advice of renowned musicians, such as Leon Fleisher, Rosalyn Tureck, Mennahem Pressler, Alicia de Larocha and Andras Schiff. She is as well a Laureate of various other highly prestigious international piano and chamber music competitions, including “Paloma O’Shea” Piano Competition in Santander and “Vittorio Gui” Chamber music Competition in Florence.
Plamena performs with leading orchestras, such as Staatskapelle Berlin, the philharmonic orchestras of Rotterdam, Radio France, Luxembourg, Tokyo, National Orchestra of Belgium, BBC Philharmonic Manchester, RAI Torino Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, MDR Orchester Leipzig, RTVE Symphony Orchestra Madrid, Enescu Philharmonic orchestra and the Youth national Philharmonic in Bucarest, Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic and the
symphony orchestras of St. Petersburg, Trondheim, Taipei, New Zealand, etc.
Conductor collaborations include Sir Colin Davis, Myung-Whun Chung, Sir Andrew Davis, Emmanuel Krivine, Walter Weller, Maxim Vengerov, Pablo Heras-Casado, Jaap Van Zweeden, Gilbert Varga, Cristian Mandeal, Howard Griffiths, Pinchas Steinberg and François-Xavier Roth, Lawrence Foster, Ivor Bolton, Jun Märkl, Yuri Bashmet, Wilson Hermanto, Uros Lajovic, Marcus Bosch, Evgeny Bouchkov and Emil Tabakov, among others.
A keen chamber music player, she has performed with Renaud Capucon, Augustin Dumay, Kolja Blacher, Mihaela Martin, Jian Wang, Pascal Moragues, Alexei Ogrintchouk, Frans Helmerson, Daishin Kashimoto, Nobuko Imai, Dmitri Makhtin, Alexander Knyazev, Ricardo Castro, the Ysaye, Michelangelo, Vogler, Danel and Orion String quartets.
Plamena performed in Berlin at the Philharmonie and the Pierre Boulez Saal, Konzerthaus Vienna, Bozar Brussels, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Kennedy Center Washington, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Munich Herkulesaal, South Bank Center London, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Moscow Conservatory and St. Petersburg Philharmonic concert halls, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, and at major festivals such as Progetto Martha Argerich Lugano, La Roque d’Antheron, Rostropovich Festival, the festivals of Montpellier, Menton, Bratislava, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern .Mangova’s first CD recording experience was for Belgian record label Cypres, where together with brilliant violinist Tatiana Samouil, she recorded the integral for violin and piano by Prokofiev. Her first solo CD recording (Shostakovich) was awarded a “Diapason d'Or of the year 2007” by the French critic. A chamber music CD by the same composer followed and was awarded the Superfonic Prize in Pizzicato magazine. Her Beethoven CD (sponsored by the Belgian Bank Fortis), was highly praised by France Musique and Diapason, as were her exceptional recordings of Strauss' Burleske (2008) and Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 (2010) with the Belgium National Orchestra and Walter Weller (Fuga Libera label). The latter was highly praised by Bryce Morrison in Gramophone magazine. Together with Fuga Libera again Plamena’s discography saw the release of a chamber music CD, highly praised too, which was recorded with the eminent Russian cellist Alexander Kniazev, dedicated to Franck and Ysaÿe.
As a passionate advocate of the music of the XX century until our days (stage performance of music of Schnittke, Gubaidulina, Penderecki, Lutoslawski, Bacewicz, Yusupov), Mangova’s latest CD “Bridges of Love” features the highly original music of her compatriot, the long time based in Luxembourg bulgarian composer Albena Petrovic, recorded at the Luxembourg Philharmonic and released by Solo Musica (DE) . That same CD production was nominated for the Opus Klassik (ex- Echo Klassik) prestigious German awards.
The newest release of the pianist, a solo piano album, was produced by the french label Mirare. The “Intimate letters” CD some great masterpieces by Robert Schumann, Clara Wieck-Schumann and Johannes Brahms.
Recent seasons highlight performances include a Stravinsky piano concerto performance with Staatskapele Berlin (by an invitation of Maestro Daniel Barenboim) under Pablo-Herras Casado, the Hamburger Symphoniker at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, concert at the “Rostropovich Festival” in Orenburg with Moscow Soloists under Maestro Yuri Bashmet, concerts with the Polish Radio Orchestra, Mangova participated at several festivals such as La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival, the Chamber Music Festival in Jerusalem, “Arts Square” Festival in St. Petersburg (by an invitation of Maestro Temirkanov), Enescu Festival in Bucarest, Chopin and his Europe Festival in Warsaw, recital in Kansas City (USA).
2021-2022 / 2022-2023 seasons highlight performances include concerts with Sinfonieorchester Basel under Ivor Bolton and with Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana under Francois Leleux at the Settimane Musicale Festival in Ascona, Marseille Philharmonic and Lawrence Foster, at the prestigious La Roque D’Antheron Piano Festival in Southern France, Turku philharmonic in Finland, the Cannes orchestra at the Antibes Classics, chamber music at the Ateneul Roman in Bucarest, recitals at Sofia Music Weeks Festival, the Governors Palace in at the corse Bastia, participation at the Povoa de Varzim International Festival in Portugal, as well as recitals in Flagey (Brussels), the mythic Salle Gaveau in Paris and a future recital entirely dedicated to Bach’s music at Maison de Radio France.
Another important debuts happened in 2023 - with the Symphony orchestra of India under Maestro Bushkov in Mumbai, Stavanger Symphony orchestra together with Andris Poga and with the Athens State Orchestra (conducted by Maestro Michael Tilkin) as part of Rachmaninov’s anniversary celebration, a return to Mannheim Philharmonic and their conductor Boyan Videnoff as well, among others. Teaching experience of the bulgarian pianist includes masterclasses internationally - in Belgium, Norway, Spain, Bulgaria, USA, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and South Africa.
Mrs. Mangova formed part of the prestigious international jury of the last edition of the famous “Marguerite Long” Piano Competition in Paris.