lachezar STANKOV
'Lachezar Stankov dispatches the Mendelssohn G-Minor Piano Concerto with arresting technical fluency and panache (no small achievement in this work) and a fiery temperament, along with a lovely, rapt lyricism in the central slow tempo movement…' Fanfare, 2020
Lachezar was born in Varna, Bulgaria. He started learning the piano aged 9 and a year later was accepted at the Dobri Hristov College of Music and Arts, where he completed his high school education with a specialist music curriculum.
Lachezar is winner of many national and international prizes and awards. He won Second Prize in the Bulgarian National Competition Dimitar Nenov (1999), Third Prize in the Romanian International Competition Pro Arte in Bucharest (2000), Grand Prix of the Competition for Czech and Slovak Music in Prague (2003), and the Bulgarian Presto National Scholarship Award (2002). In 2009, he was a finalist of the Concerto Competition at the Royal College of Music in London.
Lachezar made his concert debut in Holland aged 12 when he appeared in a major international event at the RAI Congress Centre in Amsterdam. While still at school, he performed at a number of venues in Europe and the UK, including the Varna Festival Hall and at the Bulgarian Embassies in Prague and London. At 16, he was selected to participate in a series of concerts with the Varna Philharmonic Orchestra, where he performed Grieg’s Piano Concerto No.1 to critical acclaim. The following year he received an invitation to perform Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Varna and Shumen Philharmonic Orchestras.
Lachezar was awarded an ABRSM Full Scholarship for overseas students and completed Bachelors Studies at the Royal College of Music with Professor Andrew Ball. Subsequently, he obtained a Masters of Music Diploma in Piano Performance with Distinction at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music with Professor Hilary Coates.
The Story of a Bulgarian Pianist in London: Lach Stankov
To date, Lachezar has played numerous solo and chamber music recitals in the UK and abroad. He has participated as soloist at a number of prestigious venues in London including Cadogan Hall, King's Place with the Chilingirian Quartet, St. John’s Smith Square, and at the Wigmore Hall Lunchtime Series. He has performed concertos with most of the Bulgarian State orchestras including Sofia Philharmonic, Varna Opera, Pazardjik Symphony and Sliven Philharmonic: outside Bulgaria with the North London Symphony Orchestra, Isle of Wight Symphony Orchestra, Barth Festival Orchestra (Germany), Symphony Orchestra of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil), and Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra (USA). Furthermore, he has participated at major international festivals in Bulgaria such as Sofia Winter, Plovdiv Balabanov’s House, and Varna Summer.
In addition to his performing career Lachezar also holds teaching positions at JASSPA, Cumnor House, University College School, and Whitgift School.
Lachezar is a founder of the London Festival of Bulgarian Culture, and a founder member of the Stankov Ensemble with whom he has performed throughout Europe, Brazil, and USA. With his brother Ivo, he recently recorded a critically acclaimed album of the Mendelssohn Piano and Double Concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London.
'…Stankov’s performance here is driven in faster sections, his articulation is clean, clear, and crisp—the passagework sparkles—while his handling of the lyrical material is often hushed and poignant in his hands…' Scott Noriega, Fanfare
'....after a short but powerful orchestral tutti the piano enters with drama and it is only later that Lachezar Stankov gets to show his poetic side. But overall it is the sense of Romantic drama which comes over both from the piano and the orchestra. Then a lovely poetic piano passage leads into the slow movement. Here Lachezar Stankov does really show us his sense of poetry and ability to shape a line, and in the final movement, it is his turn to dazzle as Mendelssohn contrasts sparkling piano writing with drama in the orchestra' Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill
