Mariana Pencheva

Mariana Pencheva sang in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia in April 2016. Born in Plovdiv, she studied at the Dobrin Petkov music school with Ivanka Mihaylova and graduated in 1991 from the National Academy of Music in Sofia in the classes of Matti Pinkas and Mila Dyulgerova, working afterwards in Verona with Rina Malatrazzi. Prizes at Vercelli, Cascina, Busseto and at the Pavarotti competition in Philadelphia in 1992 led to her debut there as Leonora in Donizetti's La favorita, and her Italian career followed at the Teatro Comunale in Florence, La Fenice and La Scala, where she opened the 1993/1994 season in Spontini's La vestale under Riccardo Muti and returned as Maddalena in Rigoletto across six seasons. She began teaching at the National Academy of Music in Sofia in 2015.