Александър Сомов

In 1998 the Guildhall School of Music and Drama gave its Gold Medal to a Bulgarian for the first time — an award whose earlier holders include Jacqueline du Pré — and the cellist who took it had come to London from the Lyubomir Pipkov school in Sofia and the class of Stefan Rounevsky. Somov was born in Sofia in 1975 and had already played concertos in Bulgaria and Germany as a schoolboy. He also won prizes at the Tansman competition in Łódź, the Royal Over-Seas League and the POSK competition in London. He was principal cellist of the Northern Sinfonia between 2000 and 2006, and since 2006 has been violoncelle super soliste of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, appearing as guest principal with the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony and the Philharmonia. He has taught at the Strasbourg conservatoire since the same year. His recordings run from Naxos and Marco Polo to the Bulgarian label Gega New, with broadcast recordings for the BBC and Bulgarian National Radio, and his concerto repertoire reaches from the Classical period into the twentieth century. He went to the Guildhall at the invitation of Stefan Popov, having already recorded Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme as a teenager and given the first performance of Angel Escudero's Concerto de España on tour in Spain with the National Youth Orchestra of Bulgaria. Among the conductors he has played under are Thierry Fischer, Peter Oundjian, Lionel Bringuier, Theodor Guschlbauer and Vassil Kazandzhiev, and his chamber partners include Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Thomas Zehetmair and Tasmin Little. He gives regular masterclasses in Sofia, Strasbourg, Ringamala and Flaine.