DANIELA DIKOVA - PIANIST; PHD

Pianist Dr. Daniela Dikova is a dynamic and versatile musician, committed to performing and teaching in the full spectrum of collaborative musical genres.         

 Dr. Dikova is an Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano in the Chamber Music and Accompaniment Department at the National Academy of Music – Prof. Pancho Vladigerov and has been the staff pianist for the Violin Department at the same institution since 1988. Her extensive chamber music experience includes performances in various chamber formations with partners like clarinetist Petko Radev, violinist Ginka Gichkova, cellists Stefan Popov, Gavriel Lipkind  and Angela Park, soprano Elena Baramova. Dr. Dikova is a sought-after accompanist for all international and national competitions held in Bulgaria. She has participated in the same capacity also at the “Belvedere” - Vienna, the “Tchaikovsky” – Moscow, “A.Popa” – Romania, “Rai Uno” – Italy and others.                        

In 2004, after many years of duo collaboration with the American cellist Geoffrey Dean, she became the founder of the  “Ardenza” Trio, bringing in violinist Galina Koycheva. In 2009, the ensemble was given the “Crystal Lira” award by the Bulgarian Union of Music and Dance Artists. In 2008,  Ardenza Foundation (www.ardenzamusic.org) was born, where Dr. Dikova acts as the Executive Director. She is also the founder and artistic director of “VIVAPIANO” – International Competition for Non-Professional Pianists, the first of its kind on the Balkans. For that, in 2012 she was presented by Classic FM Radio and the Sofia Municipality with the “Golden Feather” award for her considerable contribution to Bulgarian arts and culture. The Ethno Workshop/Festival “Rila Music Exchange” and “ARTdenzieta” – a creative arts after school program – are projects through which she explores interdisciplinary collaborations among artists.        

Dr. Dikova has been a jury member for national and international competitions: “Lake Pearls” – Struga, Macedonia 2013, 2014 and  “Hot Heart” – Moscow 2014. She has made numerous recordings for the Bulgarian National Radio and Television, and performed at concerts in Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Korea and other countries. In 2014 she released her first compact disk, titled “Nani-nani”, with lullabies for piano by Bulgarian composers, followed in 2015 by “Lullabies for violin and piano” together with violinist Daniela Shtereva.     

A pianist with an excellent sense for transformation of sound… Her keyboard mastery combines the high register of a violin with the low register of the cello, joining them in the process… with the color of sound rhetoric in K. Iliev’s  “Pages from an Album”, Dikova powerfully mastered the space and seemingly formulated symbols of contiguity with the musical substance…

Kultura weekly

GALINA KOYCHEVA - VIOLINIST

    

       

        Born in Varna, Galina Koycheva graduated from the Dobri Hristov Secondary Music School. 

      During the period 1999-2004 she studied with Professor Ginka Gichkova at the National Music Academy in Sofia and earned top prizes in a series of national and international competitions, including “Svetoslav Obretenov,” “Music and Earth,” “Pancho Vladigerov” (2002), “Dobrin Petkov (2002), and “Musicians of the New Мillennium” (2004). 
      
      In 2004 she was chosen as the concertmaster of the Philharmonie Junge Donau in Germany. 

     As soloist she has performed with the Varna and Shumen Philharmonics, and recorded for Bulgarian National Radio and Television. Over the last decade she has concertized in Cyprus, Korea, Russia, Finland, Slovenia, Poland, Czech Republic, and Pakistan as a member of the Lot Lorien ethnorock group. 

       From 2005 she has served as the concertmaster of the Symphony Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio.