Victor Vladkov is a 12-year-old pianist with remarkable achievements. The prodigy first appeared as soloist at age 6, and has had many concerts in Bulgaria. He is holder of prizes from national and international competitions, and 25 first places. The jury of the Grand Prize Virtuoso competition in London was absolutely overwhelmed by Victor's performance. He ranked first in up to 15 years age group and was selected for a debut appearance at the finalizing gala on 29 March on stage Royal Albert Hall's Elgar Room. The Grand Prize Virtuoso competition was founded in 1995 and is aimed at discovering and empowering talented classical music performers from all over the world. In its 2016 edition prizes went to musicians from Russia, Thailand, Japan, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Germany, Malta, China, USA, Italy and Bulgaria. Victor is trained at Iskra 1860 Community Center in the southern town of Kazanlak by music teacher Elena Yulianova who says: “I am so very proud that my best pupil, talented pianist Victor Vladkov with his absolute success has won the privilege to present his hometown of Kazanlak and Bulgaria at the final gala of the winners in Grand Prize Virtuoso international competition in London”. Here is more from Victor:

„This is a very prestigious international competition. I am very happy to have won the first prize in such a close race. There were children from across the world playing pieces for a more mature age and this surprised me. I started playing the piano at 4. My teacher Mrs. Elena Yulianova is an exceptional professional and trains her pupils at a very high level, so they win prizes wherever they go. The piano interests me a lot and I started playing for fun. But then I began giving concerts and took part in competitions. I have played two times with the Sliven Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Dimitar Karaminkov. For the competition in London I had to send three works and they are Last Spring by Edvard Grieg, Toccata by Lubomir Pipkov and Humorous Scherzo: The Cat and the Mouse by Aaron Copland. My reward is that I am going to play the Bulgarian work Toccata by Lubomir Pipkov at Royal Albert Hall. This work is more unusual for other nations. I will try to present Kazanlak, Bulgaria and the school of arts where I am trained in the best possible way.”

Victor Vladkov received the special prize at Viva Piano 2015 competition for young pianists in Sofia.

„Viva Piano is a a very nice competition. I have taken part in it three times. Last year I won Grand Prix Junior Viva Piano 2015 and I am happy that I will open this year's edition on 24 April as soloist of Sofia Philharmonic with Concerto in D major by Joseph Haydn”.

Victor is also grateful to the assistance of Dimitar Berbatov Foundation whose mission is to support Bulgaria's young talent.

„I play for fun and as long as I like to be able to learn a piece well. I play for the sake of satisfaction. I am happy with what I do. For a third year I have been member of Dimitar Berbatov Foundation's club that gives prizes to talented children and have been finalist in my age group two times. Apart from piano I love history, mathematics Bulgarian language and informatics and I am not sure I want to become a professional musician. Time will tell.”

English Daniela Konstantinova

The audio contains the following performances of pianist Victor Vladkov (12)

(recordings by courtesy of Tsvetan Vladkov)

1. Last Spring by Edvarg Grieg

2. Toccata by Lubomir Pipkov

3. The Cat and the Mouse Humorous Scherzo by Aaron Copland

4. Toccata by Vesselin Stoyanov