Ivan Yanakov

From Sofia by way of Mannes College in New York, where Arkady Aronov and Stephanie Brown taught him, Ivan Yanakov settled in London and built a career on both sides of the podium. His earliest training was Bulgarian, with Meyer Franck and Trifon Silyanovski; a fellowship took him to the Accademia Chigiana in Siena to work with Michele Campanella. He has played at Carnegie Hall, Cadogan Hall, Sydney Town Hall and the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, and has recorded Beethoven, Liszt, Franck and Haydn. He is artistic director of the London Chamber Players, an orchestra of young professionals, and made his conducting debut with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. In February 2026 his recording of Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Nayden Todorov, was released internationally. His Carnegie Hall debut came as winner of the Artists International competition, and he has conducted in Madrid, Moscow, Shanghai and Hong Kong. In Bulgaria he plays with most of the orchestras, among them the Sofia Philharmonic and the Sofia Soloists, and appears at Varna Summer, Apollonia and the New Year Music Festival; the Four Pianists, which he founded with the National Palace of Culture, added Antoni Donchev in 2022. He is co-founder and music director of the Siena Belcanto Festival and the Irvine Chamber Music Festival, teaches masterclasses at the Birmingham Conservatoire and the National Academy of Music in Sofia, and has chaired juries in San Remo and London.