Анатоли Кръстев

Studies that began at the conservatory in Tunis brought Anatoly Krastev back to Sofia and to Velko Karastoyanov at the State Academy of Music, and afterwards to André Navarra and János Starker. He also worked as Zdravko Yordanov’s assistant. Born in 1947, he has played as soloist and chamber musician in Bulgaria and abroad — with the Kinor Piano Trio, and from 2002 with the cello ensemble Cellissimo — and has recorded the standard concerto repertoire alongside Bulgarian works. He has taught at the Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music since the early 1970s, served as its deputy rector between 2008 and 2016, and holds a professorship there; several generations of Bulgarian cellists have come through his class, and his masterclasses have run in Europe, the Americas and the Balkans. Krastev appeared as a cello soloist at the Thracia Summer Music Festival in Plovdiv in 2000. The Kinor Piano Trio was formed in 2000 with Yosif Radionov and Mayer Frank, and Cellissimo two years later with Kalina Krasteva and Atanas Krastev.