Bojidara Kouzmanova-Kerr

Bojidara Kouzmanova-Kerr was born on 20. September 1977 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. During 1982-1996: studied in "Ljubomir Pipkov" Music High-School - Sofia with professor Lidia Radionova. She won the following prizes: 1995: International competition "Music and the Earth" - 2nd Prize; 1995: National Violin Competition for German Music - Bourgas - 1st and Special Prize; 1995: "Bela Bartok" competition - 1st Prize; 1995: "Dobrin Petkov" Violin competition - 3rd Prize and Special Prize for youngest participant; 1996: Second competition "Young musicians" - Sofia - 1st Prize; 2000: Hudson Valley String Competition (USA) - 3rd Prize; 2005: Grand Prix "Kottmann" from the city of Frankfurt . As a soloist Kouzmanova-Kerr played with Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Uruguay Symphony Orchestra, Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra, Rousse Philharmonic Orchestra, Varna Philharmonic Orchestra, Vratza Philharmonic Orchestra, Vidin Philharmonic Orchestra, Youth Orchestra "Plovdiv", Bohuslav Martunu Philharmonic Orchestra, Sofia Philhamonic, Bachsolisten (Vienna), Neues Orchester Basel (Switzerland), Kottmann Streicher and others. As a soloist of different orchestras and chamber concerts Kouzmanova-Kerr played on concert tours to Spain, Greece, Austria, Slovakia, Germany, Italy, Portugal, France, Israel, Latin America, Australia and in the USA. Several composers dedicated to her their pieces for violin, which she has given the premiere on different stages in Europe. Her first CD recording was in 1996 with Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Nayden Todorov with Bruch Violin concerto op.26 g-moll and Mendelssohn Violin concerto op.64 e-moll. For CDs she recorded also the Violin concerti by Karen De Pastel, Sergei Prokofieff, Brahms Double concerto, Vivaldi "Four Seasons" and Erich Wolfgang Korngold and also several CDs with works for violin and piano, recorded with the violin Stradivarius "Da Vinci" (1725) given to her at that time by Prof. Dietmar Machold. She participated in the following violin courses: 1994 - Prof. Munteanu (Romania), 1995 - Prof. Vanja Milanova (Bulgaria), 1995 - Prof. Michael Barta (USA), 1999 - Prof. Jose Luis Garcia (Spain), 1999 & 2000 - Prof. Alois Kottmann (Germany), 2000 - bei Vladimir Spivakov (Russia), 2004 - . 2005 Kouzmanova - Kerr finished her master studies at the Vienna Music University with Prof. Guenter Pichler. Since October 1996 she received Alban Berg scholarship from Alban Berg Foundation in Vienna. Kouzmanova - Kerr has played with different famous instruments most of them given to her by Prof. Dietmar Machold (for example Stradivarius "The Red Diamond" - 1732, "Da Vinci" - 1725, Stradivarius 1717, Stradivarius Ex Nachez 1716, Stradivarius "Reynier" 1681, Pietro Guarneri 1735, Guarneri del Gesu 1741 and several new made violins - Gerlinde Reutterer 2004, Greiner. Since 2008 she plays her own instrument made by Matthieu Devuyst. Kouzmanova - Kerr is a member of 20th Century Ensemble, LUX Quartet and Kreisler String Trio.

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