Albena Danailova

In September 2008 Albena Danailova won the audition for concertmaster of the Vienna State Opera orchestra — the first woman to hold the post — and on 1 January 2009 sat as second concertmaster at the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert; the appointment was made permanent in 2010. Born in Sofia to the violinist Boyan Danailov and the pianist Violeta Popova, she took her first lessons at five and played her first concert at twelve, studying at the Lyubomir Pipkov National School of Music and at the Pancho Vladigerov Academy with Nelly Zheleva and Dora Ivanova, then with Petru Munteanu at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock. Prizes at Concertino Praga and at the Kocian, Tibor Varga and Vittorio Gui competitions came first; then concertmaster of the London Philharmonic and first violin at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Since 2020 she has been professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and she plays a Stradivarius from the collection of the Austrian National Bank. Her competition record also takes in the Svetoslav Obretenov and Young Musical Talents competitions in Bulgaria and the contest at Kloster Schöntal in Germany, and she has recorded for Bulgarian National Radio and Television and for German stations.