Georgi Cherkin
Georgi Cherkin was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in a family of musicians. He started playing piano at the age of six and the following year he enrolled at the Liubomir Pipkov National Music School in Sofia, where he spent 12 years as a student of Antonina Boneva. In 1996 he was admitted to the Pancho Vladigerov National Music Academy in Sofia in Prof. Atanas Kurtev’s class. A year later, he was also admitted to the prestigious Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where he was trained by Sergio Perticaroli.
Georgi Cherkin has won top prizes at the following international competitions: Pancho Vladigerov in Shumen, Bulgaria, in 2003, Premio Sassari (Italy) in 1999, and Young Musical Talents in Sofia in 1994. He has performed in many prestigious concert halls, such as the Auditorio in Rome, Musikhalle in Hamburg, Convention Center in Okinawa, Kaufmann Concert Hall in New York, and Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, to name but a few. In the last few years he has received numerous awards for popularizing culture and the arts in Bulgaria, including the Crystal Lyre, the Golden Century, the Golden Muse, and the Golden Quill.
His repertoire includes the major concertos for piano and orchestra, some of which he has performed as soloist of the Sofia Philharmonic, the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Classic FM M-Tel Orchestra, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra (Ankara), the Santa Cecilia Orchestra, and the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra in Ukraine. He has given a series of recitals in Rome, Paris, Berlin, Prague, Warsaw, Bratislava and elsewhere.
During the 2007-2008 season, Georgi Cherkin performed at the gala opening concert of the prestigious Europalia International Arts Festival in Brussels. At the beginning of 2009 he was chosen by the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture as a participant in the festival Days of Bulgarian Culture in Russia. On this occasion he played Pancho Vladigerov’s Third Piano Concerto as soloist of the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra.