Martin Iliev

Martin Iliev performed with State Opera Plovdiv in 2001 and has sung Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Puccini's Tosca and the Verdi operas with the company, and has taken that repertoire on touring productions in the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. In 2007 he sang at Wichita in a cast that included Samuel Ramey. Born in Kazanlak in 1968, he completed his schooling at the Hristina Morfova institute in Stara Zagora in 1986 and graduated from the State Academy of Music in Sofia in 1993, in the class of Resa Koleva. He began his career as a baritone and moved into the dramatic and heroic tenor repertoire in 2005; the official biography of the Sofia Opera describes him as a dramatic and heroic tenor. In 2010 he became a soloist of Sofia Opera and Ballet. His tenor roles include Pinkerton, Pollione, Manrico, Radamès, Calaf, Don José and Otello, with Siegmund and Siegfried in the Ring.