VANESSA HRISTOVA Violist
Biography
Bulgarian violist Vanessa Hristova performs internationally as a soloist, chamber musician and principal violist and has appeared at the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall and Konzerthaus Berlin. She is a top prize winner at the XXVI International Music Competition Dobrich, the King's Peak Competition, the Beethoven Viola Concours and the North London Competition.
Vanessa has been invited to festivals including Sofia Music Weeks International Festival, Open Chamber Music Prussia Cove, Festival Academy Budapest, Classic Con Brio Musikfestival Osnabrück, Encuentro de Santander, Varna Summer International Music Festival. She is a Young Artist of the Stift International Music Festival.
As a soloist she has performed with a number of orchestras and has recitals around Europe. She has collaborated with conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Antonio Pappano and Maxim Vengerov, performing as Principal Violist of all the Royal College of Music Orchestras amongst others. She has benefited from the English National Opera Evolve Scheme and in 2023-4 is part of Philharmonia Orchestra MMSF Experience and London Symphony Orchestra String Experience. She has recorded a CD in Abbey Road Studios as a lead viola of LGT Young Soloists.
As a chamber musician she has toured around Europe with string quartet "Dobri Hristov" and recorded for the Bulgarian National Radio. She is part of the award-winning Adeos Duo, which has been mentored by the Marmen Quartet and Maxim Rysanov. The Duo regularly performs recitals and concertos with orchestra. Her chamber music coaches also include Adrian Brendel, Andreas Reiner and the Pavel Haas Quartet. She recently performed with the Quartetto di Cremona.
Vanessa has learnt from prominent artists including Simon Rowland-Jones, Tatjana Masurenko, Lars Anders Tomter, Wilfried Strehle, Máté Szücs and was selected for masterclasses with Nobuko Imai, Lawrence Power, Kim Kashkashian and Hariolf Schlichtig.
Vanessa graduated from the National School of Arts in Varna, where she studied violin with Dilyana Tsvetanova and viola and chamber music with Roumi Petrova. She is currently studying Artist Diploma in Performance at the Royal College of Music as a Kit and John Gander Award Holder in the class of Nathan Braude and in Cologne with Alexander Zemtsov. She completed her Bachelor of Music and Master of Performance with Distinction as an Elsie Gertrude Martin Scholar in the RCM, studying with Nathan Braude, Andriy Viytovych and Bryony-Gibson Cornish. She is a prize winner of the Viola Competition.
Vanessa is an Orpheus Sinfonia Foundation Programme Musician as well as a recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society Julius Isserlis Scholarship, the Help Musicians Postgraduate Award, the Kathleen Trust Grant, and the Henry Wood Accommodation Trust Award. Her studies have been supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust Derek Butler Award, and the Stephen Bell Trust. She plays on a Paul Jombar viola and a W. E. Hill & Sons bow, kindly provided by Florian Leonhard Fine Violins.