Biser Georgiev

Sixteen when he began lessons with Veselina Zafirova in his native Varna, Biser Georgiev went on to the Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music in Sofia, studying with Irena Brambarova and graduating in 1998. He was still a student when he sang Colas in Mozart's Bastien und Bastienne at Tegernsee in 1995. A competitive audition took him into the Sofia Opera, and he has sung bass and bass-baritone roles there, including the Grand Inquisitor, Raimondo, Jochanaan, Nilakantha, Scarpia, and the Alberich in Das Rheingold for which the Union of Bulgarian Musicians and Dancers awarded him its Crystal Lyre in 2010. Second prizes at the Hristo Brambarov competition, at the Marie Kraja in Tirana and at Rho in Italy came earlier, and his touring has reached Prague, Moscow, Ljubljana, Japan and the United States. He was schooled at the Dobri Hristov music school in Varna, and by the early 2000s his stage work also reached baritone parts in Rigoletto, La traviata, Aida, Don Carlos, Carmen, Don Giovanni and Eugene Onegin. His guest engagements have taken in Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy and France. Born in Varna in 1974, he worked after his diploma in the masterclasses of Gena Dimitrova, Aleksandrina Milcheva, Kaludi Kaludov, Mihail Mateev, Ventseslav Katsarov, Nikola Ghiuselev and Stoyan Popov. Among his roles are Telramund in Lohengrin, the title role in Vladigerov's Tsar Kaloyan, Sancho in Massenet's Don Quichotte, Paolo in Simon Boccanegra, Amonasro, Klingsor, Kurwenal, Pizarro and Ferrando in Il trovatore, and his guest work has also taken him to Portugal. His first period with Sofia Opera was from 1998 to 2001; he returned in 2008.