Emil Tabakov

Emil Tabakov trained in Sofia as a double bass player, a composer and a conductor, and has made a working life out of all three. Born in Ruse in 1947, he won the Nikolai Malko competition in Copenhagen in 1977, conducted the Rousse Philharmonic from 1976 to 1979, directed the Sofia Soloists Chamber Orchestra through most of the 1980s, and came to the Sofia Philharmonic in 1985 as conductor, becoming principal conductor in 1987 and music director from 1988 to 2000; he was music director of the Belgrade Philharmonic from 1994 to 1999 and principal conductor of the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2015, with a further period at the head of the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra in Ankara. His own catalogue runs to eleven symphonies, concertos, chamber and choral music and a Requiem. On record he has completed cycles of Shostakovich and of Mahler. He graduated from the Bulgarian State Conservatory in 1974 in double bass with Todor Toshev and conducting with Vladi Simeonov, and in 1978 in composition with Marin Goleminov, and in 1997 he was the minister of culture of Bulgaria; in 1999 he became artistic director of the New Year Music Festival in Sofia. He directed the Sofia Soloists from 1979 to 1988, took the Bilkent orchestra in Ankara in 2002, and headed the music production and ensembles department of Bulgarian National Radio until 2013, which won the Sirak Skitnik grand prize in 2012. In 2010 he became co-founder and permanent conductor of the Ruse Festival Orchestra, which he brought to the Bucharest Athenaeum in 2019. He holds the Golden Age award with necklace and honorary citizenship of Ruse.