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Biography

Winner of the 2012 New Orleans International Piano Competition, Viktor Valkov has been hailed as a “lion of the keyboard” and “sensational” (Wiesbadener Kurier). A winner of Astral’s 2015 National Auditions, he recently gave a critically acclaimed recital in London’s Wigmore Hall, and appeared as soloist with the Louisiana Philharmonic, Baton Rouge Symphony, the Acadiana Symphony, and West Virginia Symphony.

Mr. Valkov has appeared frequently as a recitalist in the U.S., Japan, Germany, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, and Macedonia, at such venues as Carnegie Hall (Weill and Zankel Halls), Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, Sakura Hall (Tokyo), Heidelberg’s Alte Aula, and Bulgaria Concert Hall (Sofia). Japanese tours took him to Tokyo, Toyama, Yokohama, Okinawa, Kanaya, and Okayama. In the US he has appeared at the Texas Music Festival, Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival, Kingston Chamber Music Festival, and in collaboration with Martin Chalifour, Margaret Batjer, Timothy McAllister, Toby Appel, Patrick Sheridan, Jon Kimora Parker, and others. Mr. Valkov has toured Germany annually since 2002.

In his native Bulgaria he has performed with most of the major orchestras and at most of the country’s important music festivals. At 21 he performed Dimitar Nenov’s Grande Piano Concerto with New Symphony Orchestra under Rossen Milanov, becoming the fifth pianist to perform the concerto, and the only one to do so in its entirety, while in 2007 he made his debut with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Valkov has made a number of recordings for the Bulgarian National Radio archive and has recorded for Bulgarian National Television and Macedonian Radio and Television.

Mr. Valkov’s concerts reflect a vast interest in chamber music as well as lesser-known piano repertoire. He frequently performs with Bulgarian cellist Lachezar Kostov as the Kostov-Valkov Duo. Both deeply interested in broadening the repertoire for cello/piano duo, they often include such composers as Kabalevsky, Roslavetz, Schnittke, and Saint- Saëns in their programs. In 2009, the Kostov-Valkov Duo gave its Carnegie Hall debut in Zankel Hall, and in 2011 won the Liszt-Garisson International Competition, where they were also awarded the Liszt Prize and all special prizes in the collaborative artists category. In 2008, they recorded the entire opus for cello and piano by Nikolay Roslavets, released by Naxos in 2011. Their second CD, Transcriptions and Paraphrases, was released in 2015 and featured their own arrangements of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies Nos. 1 and 2, and the Evocation à la Chapelle Sixtine.

As a soloist, some of Mr. Valkov’s recent projects included Beethoven’s Hammerklavier sonata and Busoni’s Fantasia Contrappuntistica. During the 2011-2012 season, he presented in concerts a program highlighting composers of the 1600’s, including Froberger, Couperin, Frescobaldi, and Buxtehude, and selections from The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. His first solo CD was a Naxos release of the complete piano music of Dimitar Nenov.

Courses Taught

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