Guitar Quartet

Mihail Iliev began learning the guitar at the age of six with Viktoria Tsvetkova at the Acoustic club in Silistra. Since 2019 he has studied with Boyan Doychev at the Guitar Centre for Young Artists in Varna, where he also leads the centre’s ensemble. He studies piano at the Amadeus club in Silistra as well.

He is a prizewinner at national and international competitions in Pleven, Kyustendil, Borovets, Sofia, Varna, Skopje, Bucharest, Komotini, Parma and Gorizia. His awards include the 2025 Grand Prix at Hopes, Talents, Masters in Dobrich and first prizes in both the piano and string-instrument sections of Musical Pearls in Varna. In chamber music, he has won first prizes in Pleven and Dobrich as a duo with Boyan Doychev, as well as awards with the centre’s ensemble.

He has attended masterclasses with teachers from Bulgaria, France, North Macedonia, Italy, Austria, Denmark and Spain. He attends St Kliment Ohridski Mathematics and Science High School in Silistra. A member of the Dimitar Berbatov Foundation’s Successful Children of Bulgaria clubs for 2019–2024, he was one of three finalists for its 2025 Grand Prize in Art. In 2021 he was also among the seven leading nominees in Art at the Encho Keryazov Foundation awards.

Alexander Ivanov is from Plovdiv and studies classical guitar with Dr Kostadin Dinkov at Dobrin Petkov National School of Music and Dance Art. He has attended masterclasses with Stella Miteva-Dinkova, Rossen Balkanski, Éric Franceries, Jérémy Jouve, Thu Le, Mateusz Kowalski, Pavel Ralev and Antonio Pompilio.

He has won dozens of first prizes at national and international competitions, including Altamira Guitar Competition, World Open, the festivals in Brno and Belgrade, and the competitions in Pleven and Kyustendil. At the 29th International Classical Guitar Competition in Kyustendil in 2026, he received the Grand Prize, the Petko Genkov National Award and the special prize for the most artistic performance.

His concert appearances include Tradizione e Futuro, Memory, Traditions, Ascent and Friends of Music in Plovdiv, and I Love Bulgarian Music at Bulgaria Hall in Sofia. He also performs in chamber groups and ensembles.

Katerina Vachkova studies classical guitar with Nikolay Mihaylov at Panayot Pipkov National School of Arts in Pleven. She has received more than 15 awards and four scholarships from Bulgaria’s Ministry of Culture. Her first prizes include Abanico in Sofia with Trio Madeira, solo and ensemble categories in Kyustendil, Sound of Time in Veliko Tarnovo and Orpheus Talents in Plovdiv. She has also received awards in Gorizia, Transilvania and Pleven.

She began composing in 2020; her guitar pieces include Strawberries and Summer Nights and Mavi. In 2023 she received the Valentin Valchev memorial special prize in Kyustendil, followed by a diploma in Dobrich for performing a Bulgarian composer and premiering her own work, Mavi. She has also arranged the folk song Se posvrsi serbez Donka for guitar ensemble.

Her masterclass teachers include Anton Baranov, Joaquín Clerch, Aniello Desiderio, Nino D’Amico, Antoine Guerrero, Darko Bageski, Atanas Ourkouzounov and Rossen Balkanski, as well as George Vassilev at the Varna Summer academy. Concert appearances include the Sole festival in Burgas with Trio Madeira, the Katya Popova festival in Pleven, a concert in Rome in 2024 and Horizons 2024. In 2025 she took part as Conductor for a Day at Ruse State Opera with Dimitar Kosev. Since 2024 she has been part of the Yordan Kamdzhalov Foundation and the Successful Children of Bulgaria clubs for 2024 and 2025.

Martin Ivanov is a final-year student at Panayot Pipkov National School of Arts in Pleven. He began studying the guitar in the third grade with Stefanos Dimitriou at the LIK community centre, before continuing his training with Josef Šercel at the arts school.

He has performed at Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria Gallery in Rome, and the concert marking the centenary of Katya Popova’s birth at the 32nd Katya Popova Laureate Days. The Summer Guitar Academy in Pleven has also played an important role in his musical development.

His awards include third prizes at the eighth, ninth and tenth editions of Pleven International Guitar Festival; a third prize and a one-year scholarship at Orpheus Talents in Plovdiv; second prize at the 22nd Enrico Mercatali competition in Gorizia; and third prize at the 29th International Classical Guitar Competition in Kyustendil.