Евгени Божанов

Twelve years old when he played his first concerto in his native Rousse, Evgeni Bozhanov had begun the piano at six and studied there with Evgeny Zhelyazkov before moving to Germany — to Boris Bloch at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, then to Georg Friedrich Schenck at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf. His competition results in 2009 and 2010 included: finalist at the Van Cliburn in 2009, second prize at the Queen Elisabeth in Brussels in 2010, and fourth prize at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw that same autumn. Prizes at the Carl Bechstein, Alessandro Casagrande and Sviatoslav Richter competitions had come earlier. Born in 1984, he has performed in recital with the violinist Akiko Suwanai. With the Sofia Philharmonic he appeared in a streamed concert with Martha Argerich and Akane Sakai in 2021, and in a Mendelssohn programme the following year with Suwanai and Emmanuel Tjeknavorian. The Sviatoslav Richter competition in Moscow gave him its second prize in 2008, with no first awarded, and in 2011 Warsaw invited him to open the Chopin Festival with a recital and the First Concerto. A debut at the Berlin Philharmonie followed, along with appearances at the Musikverein, the Royal Festival Hall, the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the festivals of Lille and Bad Kissingen, a European tour with the orchestra of Italian radio, and recitals in Japan, Suntory Hall among them. In 2019 he became a professor at the Folkwang University of the Arts.