Velika Tsonkova

Velika Tsonkova is a Bulgarian violinist who studied at the Pleven music school and the Bulgarian State Conservatory, then worked with Yfrah Neaman at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She holds the Crystal Lyre award of the Union of Bulgarian Musicians and Dancers and spent a French government residency in Paris in 1999 and 2000; her playing has been recorded by Bulgarian National Radio, Bulgarian National Television and Hessischer Rundfunk in Frankfurt. A guest soloist with the Bulgarian chamber and symphony orchestras and a regular at Sofia Music Weeks, Varna Summer and Apollonia, she teaches violin at the Prof. Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music. On 5 September 2002 she was among the soloists of a concert with the State Opera Plovdiv at the Concert Hall Plovdiv under Nayden Todorov, in an all-Bulgarian programme of Vladigerov, Stoyanov, Hadjiev, Pipkov, Kyurkchiyski, Cherkin and Atanasov.