Pavel Minev

At twenty-three Pavel Minev was appointed a full-time soloist of the Moscow State Philharmonic, reportedly the first foreign musician to hold the position. Born in Pleven in 1972, he began with his mother, the violin teacher Yova Yordanova, and was playing concertos in public while still a child; he went on to the Moscow Conservatory and the class of Irina Bochkova, graduating with distinction and continuing to a doctorate. He has played across Europe, Russia, Asia and the United States, Carnegie Hall and the Berlin Philharmonie among the halls, and has given the first performances of a large number of new works. His recordings take in Paganini, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and chamber repertoire. A Russian state grant for artists came in 2002 and an award from the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture the following year.