Давид Менендес

Dimitar Tapkov's seventy-fifth birthday was marked on 28 October 2004 by a Sofia Philharmonic concert that framed the Bulgarian composer's work with Spanish repertoire; David Menendez appeared as soloist, paired with David Castanon. A native of Castrillón in Asturias, he studied with María Dolores Tamargo and Ana Luisa Chova, took first prize at the Juventudes Musicales de España competition in 1999 and third prize at Operalia in 2005. He first appeared at the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid as Don Carlos in Gaztambide's El juramento, and has gone on to sing at the Liceu, the Teatro Real and the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, in repertoire reaching from Mozart and Rossini to Henze's Boulevard Solitude and the premiere of La hija del cielo.