Viktor Valkov

Much of Viktor Valkov's recorded work has gone to music that needed an advocate: the piano music of Dimitar Nenov, and the cello and piano works of Nikolay Roslavets, both for Naxos. The Bulgarian pianist trained at the National Music Academy in Sofia, then at the Juilliard School, and took his doctorate at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University; he made his debut with the Sofia Philharmonic in 2007. Gold at the New Orleans International Piano Competition in 2012 and the Astral Artists national auditions in 2015 followed. With the cellist Lachezar Kostov, his partner since 2000, he took first prize at the Liszt-Garrison competition in 2011, made a Carnegie Hall debut in Zankel Hall in 2009 and recorded Liszt's transcriptions for Navona. He teaches piano at the University of Utah.