Yana Deshkova was born in Pleven in 1977, the only other musician in her family is her brother, also a violinist. “I know from my parents that I was four when I first said I wanted to play this instrument. That was how I came to meet my first teacher Blagorodna Taneva,” Yana says and adds:

“I was in her class until I graduated the music school in Pleven. Anyone who has studied with her since the beginning of their music education can count themselves lucky. And her advice is something that is useful to me to this day. Blagorodna Taneva provides a very solid basis in violin playing. She has in fact created a violin school in Bulgaria. Performing on stage, the feeling of playing to an audience – that is something she instilled in me at a very early age.”

When she was still at school, Yana Deshkova won a host of national and international contests and played as soloist of the Bulgarian National Radio Symphonietta orchestra, the Sofia Soloists chamber ensemble, the philharmonics of Pleven and Rousse; she performed in Switzerland and Austria.

In the 1996 – 2000 period she took part in the master classes of Pinchas Zukerman, Mincho Minchev and Ifrah Neeman. To this day, Yana is very grateful to the renowned pedagogue:

“After graduating the music school I went to London to study with Ifrah Neeman. This was a very important time for my professional development. Going into every detail, evoking the style and getting a feel of the appropriate sounding – these are things I, to a great extent, owe to him. He has played a significant role in my independent thinking as a musician.”

In 1997 Yana Deshkova won first prize at the Rodolfo Lipizer international violin competition as well as the special Lipizer prize. She gave a number of concerts in Italy, Germany and Great Britain.

The violinist has made recordings at the Bulgarian National Radio, the Bulgarian National TV, Radio Frankfurt, Danish National Radio and many others. Upon getting her Bachelor’s degree, Yana went on to study with Mincho Minchev in Essen, Germany. “He taught me to be brave on stage, to have audacity as a musician,” the talented violinist remembers.

Yana Deshkova says she had no plans of living or working in Denmark but ultimately went there when she was invited as concertmaster.

“After 25 years of discussions and talks, a magnificent concert hall with incredible acoustics was built for the orchestra and it looks like being the best hall in Europe. It will be inaugurated on 29 of March. We have already started rehearsals there though the concerts still take place where we used to perform. Next season I will have the pleasure of performing Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 together with my colleagues from the orchestra on this unique new stage. The very thought that it will be the orchestra’s new home gives me an incredible feeling.”

Besides first violin of the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Yana Deshkova is guest concertmaster of the orchestras in Aarhus, Denmark as well as Trondheim, Norway. The violinist was invited to the New London Consort baroque ensemble; with this ensemble she took part in the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia.

English version: Milena Daynova

The audio features the following works:

-  Fragment of Faust Fantasy by Henryk Wieniawski, Marina Kapitanova, piano;

-  Fragment of Part III of Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by Johannes Brahms with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conductor Milen Nachev;

-  Fragment of Horo by Pancho Vladigerov, Marina Kapitanova, piano.