Pavel Minev - violin

Pavel was born in Bulgaria into a family of musicians. He started his violin classes at the age of 5 with his mother Yova Iordanova, a prominent violin teacher. When he was six, he performed his first Vivaldi concerto with the Sofia Chamber Orchestra. The well-known magazine Gratia Italy, said, "[he is the] Bulgarian Paganini of tomorrow, and today he is only six." In 1997 Minev graduated cum laude from Moscow State Conservatory with the class of professor Bochkova. He participated in the graduation concert in the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory. In 1997 Pavel opened the biggest Bulgarian festival, "March Music Days," with the premiere of K. Kyurkchiysky's violin concerto. In 1998 he played at the opening of the World Youth Olympic games in Moscow with the Russian State Symphony Radio and TV Orchestra. In 2000 he participated in a big concert at the Russian Parliament.

Pavel has won a number of prestigious competitions, among them: 1st Prize at "Svyatoslav Obretenov" national contest; 1st Prize in the "Jan Kotsian" international contest in the Czech Republic; 1st Prize at the "Chitta di Streza" in Italy; Gold Medal at the International Wieniawski festival in Poland.

In April 2002 Minev was granted the state award "prominent musician and art and cultural worker of Russia." In May 2002 he played the final concert of the season at Moscow State Conservatory, where he performed a sonata by the Bulgarian minister of culture, Prof. Abraschev, a world premiere. In 2002 he gave a Christmas concert in the Bulgarian Parliament shown on Bulgarian national TV. He has been the subject of three documentary films shown in Bulgaria. He has toured Italy, Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Poland, the Former Soviet Union, and the USA. He also won a competition to become a violin soloist at Moscow Philharmonic Company "Moscontsert." In 1996, he joined the famous soloist group of Moscow State Academic Philharmonic Society where a number of star musicians such as pianists Richter and Kraynev, violist Bashmet, violinists Tretyakov and Repin once played, the first foreigner to be so honored in its 75-year history.

Mr. Minev has two compact discs in production, which was released in the summer of 2003 by State Company for TV and Radio "Kultura", Russia and Bulgarian Ministry of Culture. In May 2003 Mr. Minev was recipient of the State Award as a prominent musician of Bulgaria.