Plamena Mangova

Plamena Mangova won second prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2007 and embarked on an international career. Her initial studies were with Marina Kapatsinskaya at the Pancho Vladigerov Sofia State Music Academy in Bulgaria and then at the Queen Sofia Higher Music School, Madrid with the eminent teacher Dmitri Bashkirov. She has also worked with Abdel-Rahman El Bacha at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium and received the advice of renowned musicians such as Leon Fleisher, Rosalyn Tureck, Krystian Zimerman and Andras Schiff. She is a Laureate of various prestigious international piano and chamber music competitions, including “Paloma O’Shea” in Santander and “Vittorio Gui” in Florence, as well as the Juventus Festival in France. Plamena performs with leading orchestras, such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, National Orchestra of Belgium, European Union Chamber Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, RAI Torino Orchestra, Moscow Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, St Petersburg Orchestra, MDR Orchester Leipzig, RTVE Symphony Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony, Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Verbier Festival Orchestra... Conductor collaborations include Sir Colin Davis, Myung-whun Chung, Sir Andrew Davis, Emmanuel Krivine, Walter Weller, Maxim Vengerov, Emil Tabakov, Tadaaki Otaka, Jaap van Zweden, Dmitri Jurowski, Jean-Jacques Kantorow,, Jean-Claude Casadesus. A keen chamber music player, she has performed with Maria Joao Pires, Boris Berezovsky, Augustin Dumay, Mihaela Martin, Jian Wang, Pascal Moragues, Alexei Ogrintchouk, Alexander Kniazev, Frans Helmerson and the Ysaye String Quartet among others. Plamena has performed at the Berlin Philharmonie, BOZAR Brussels, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Kennedy Center Washington, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Munich Herkulesaal, Bonn Beethovenhaus, South Bank Center London, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Moscow Conservatory concert hall, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Théâtre du Châtelet, Théâtre des Champs Elysées and Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, Sala Verdi Milan and at major festivals such as Progetto Martha Argerich Lugano, Verbier Academy, La Folle Journée Nantes and Tokyo, La Roque d'Anthéron, Rostropovich Festival in Moscow and Baku, Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, Santander, Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, Montpellier Radio France Festival, Festival de Menton, Pietrasanta in Concerto. Her first solo CD recording (Shostakovich) was awarded a “Diapason d'Or of the year 2007”. A chamber music disc by the same composer followed with soprano Tatiana Melnychenko, violinist Natalia Prischepenko and cellist Sebastian Klinger which was awarded the Superfonic Prize in Pizzicato magazine. Her Beethoven disc (sponsored by the Belgian Bank Fortis), was highly praised by France Musique and Diapason, as were her exceptional recordings of Strauss' Burleske (2008) and Brahms Piano Concerto No.1 (2010) with the Belgium National Orchestra and Walter Weller (Fuga Libera label). The latter was highly praised by Bryce Morrison in Gramophone magazine. The last CD, highly praised too, was recorded with the cellist Alexander Kniazev and dedicated to Franck and Ysaÿe.