Boyan Vodenitcharov
piano, composition

Boyan Vodenitcharov was born in 1960.He already won the second price of the International « Senigallia » Contest before he began his studies in 1979 at the Conservatory of Sofia in the class of Julia and Konstantin Ganev.In 1981 he ended third in the International Busoni Contest and two years later he received the third price at the Queen Elisabeth Contest in Brussels. In 1986 and 1987, he gets the “Fulbright Grant” to perfect himself with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore.

Since then, Boyan Vodenitcharov was regularly invited in Europe, the U.S., Canada and Japan. He performed at several renowned festivals, such as the “Festival van Vlaanderen”, the “Festival de Wallonie”, “Ars Musica”,in Belgium, the “Amsterdam Pianofestival”, the French “Midem”, etc.He gave concerts in prestigious concert halls as the “Palais des Beaux-Arts” in Brussels, the “Concertgebouw” in Amsterdam, the “Palais de la Musique” in Strasbourg, the “Smetana Hall” in Prague, the “Suntory Hall” in Tokyo and the “Radio Hall” in Toronto. He performs regularly as a soloist with orchestras like the “Orchestre National de Belgique”, the “Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège”, and the “Filharmonish Orkest van Vlaanderen”, the “Residentieorkest Den Haag”, the “Staatskapelle Schwerin”, the “Kärtner Sinfonieorchester” and all symphonic orchestras in his native Bulgaria.

Besides his activities as an instrumentalist Boyan Vodenitcharov works also in the field of composition and improvisation. Several of his pieces have been performed in France, Germany, Belgium and Bulgaria. As an improviser he collaborates regularly with the jazz pianist Arnould Massart and the saxophonist Steve Houben.

For the last 15 years he has shown a lively interest in ancient instruments like the pianoforte or the tangentenflügel. On these instruments he recorded for PHI piano trios by Mozart as well as selection of Haydn sonatas. On Denon Records we find him alongside Ryo Terakado in an integral of the Beethoven sonatas for violin and piano, on Flora Records, together with François Fernandez he performs piano trios by Haydn as well as sonatas for violin and piano by Mozart. He also collaborates with other authorities on ancient music like Sigiswald Kuijken, Jan Vermilen and Marcel Ponseele. His recent discography includes solo pieces by Brahms (on Bösendorfer 1880), Debussy (on Erard 1910) and Mozart (on Walter 1795) for the label Explicit! .

From 1988 until 1991 Boyan Vodenitcharov teaches piano at the State Conservatory of Sofia and since 1991 ­ piano and chamber music in the Royal Conservatories of Gent and Liège (Belgium). Presently he is a professor of piano, pianoforte and improvisation at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. In 2003 he was a member of the jury of the Queen Elisabeth Contest.