Ludmil Angelov

Chopin's complete published works: Ludmil Angelov gave the cycle in 1987–88, in 1999 and again in 2009–10 across several countries, and his 1998 recording of the complete rondos and variations won the Grand Prix du Disque Chopin. Born in Varna on 27 June 1961, he began the piano at six, worked from sixteen with Konstantin Stankovich, and passed from the Lyubomir Pipkov National School of Music in Sofia to the Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music, where Viktoria Spassova and Ludmila Stoyanova taught him. A first prize at the Svetoslav Obretenov national competition came at eleven; a special prize at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw followed in 1985, Bulgarian Young Musician of the Year in 1988, and further competition successes in Italy, the United States, Monte Carlo and France. He has played at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Musikverein and the Vienna State Opera. Since 1992 he has taught at the conservatoire in Toledo and since 2011 at New Bulgarian University, and he founded and directs the Piano Extravaganza festival and the Cameralia Sofia international chamber music festival. In 2016 Hyperion issued his first recording of Moritz Moszkowski's Piano Concerto, Op. 3, made with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow, and he has recorded as well for RCA, Pentatone, Toccata Classics, Danacord and Gega New. He founded the international music festival in Toledo, advises the Varna Summer festival, which brought him the Grand Prize of the City of Varna in 2015, and has sat on the jury of the Warsaw Chopin Competition in 2010, 2015, 2021 and 2025. Poland gave him the Gloria Artis medal in 2011, Sofia made him an honorary citizen in 2022, the year of his Golden Age Necklace, and Spain awarded him the Order of Isabella the Catholic in 2023. In 2025 Bulgaria awarded him the Collar of the Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius.