With her “commanding stage presence” (The Strad), Bulgarian violinist Bella Hristova engages audiences with equal mastery of “impressive power and control” (Washington Post) and “impeccable sound and technique” (The New York Times).

Ms. Hristova’s upcoming performance schedule showcases her wide range of repertoire. This season’s highlights include Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 2 with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Barber Concerto with the Atlantic Music Festival Orchestra, Beethoven at the Cerritos Center for the Arts, Sibelius with the Mississippi Symphony, Dvorak with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Venezuela, as well as Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy with the Richardson Symphony and Mozart’s Concerto No. 5 with the Youngstown Symphony. Additionally, she will be performing programs of contemporary music in the Far East at the Shanghai International Music Festival and at Seoul National University. She also performs recitals and educational programs throughout the US and tours with Musicians from Marlboro.

Ms. Hristova has performed extensively as soloist with orchestra including with Pinchas Zukerman and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center and with Jaime Laredo and the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Festival appearances have included The Grand Teton Festival, Music@Menlo, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, Music from Angel Fire, and reengagements at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Marlboro Music Festival. Mr. Hristova was selected as a member of CMS Two and has frequently performed chamber music at Lincoln Center.

First Prize Winner in the 2008-09 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Ms. Hristova made her debut in the Young Concert Artists Series during the 2009-10 season at Merkin Concert Hall in New York, sponsored by the Rhoda Walker Teagle Prize, at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and at the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston. At the Auditions, she was the first recipient of the Helen Armstrong Violin Fellowship; was honored with the Miriam Brody Aronson Award, the Ruth Laredo Memorial Award, and the Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award for Women Artists; and won the Candlelight Concert Society Concert and the Lied Center of Kansas Concert Prizes. Ms. Hristova currently holds the John French Violin Chair of YCA.

In 2007 Ms. Hristova won First Prize at the Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand, resulting in a critically acclaimed concert tour of the country and a similarly acclaimed CD recording of solo violin works by the Belgian virtuoso Charles de Bériot for the Naxos label. She was awarded a career grant from the Salon de Virtuosi in New York and is a Laureate of the 2006 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. She has appeared multiple times on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion on National Public Radio.

Born in Pleven, Bulgaria in 1985, Ms. Hristova began violin studies at the age of six. At twelve, she participated in master classes with Ruggiero Ricci at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 2003, she entered The Curtis Institute of Music, where she worked with Ida Kavafian and studied chamber music with Steven Tenenbom. She received her Artist Diploma with Jaime Laredo at Indiana University in 2010. Ms. Hristova plays a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin, once owned by the violinist Louis Krasner.

[Surname is pronounced: (huh) ree-stoh-vuh]

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