The name of Bulgarian teenager Nikolay Dimitrov has become recently popular in Bulgarian media. The talented pianist won the First Prize at Grand Prize Virtuoso international competition. He is due to visit London shortly to receive his prize. The concert that apart from the Bulgarian will also present prize winners from Russia, China, Germany, UK, Belgium, Spain and other countries is on 13 March at Royal Albert Hall. Nikolay is going to play Impromptu №1 by Chopin. More details from his piano teacher Daniela Kyurkchieva:

„Recently online competitions have been in the vogue, as they are more cost-efficient. Applicants submit a video of their performances and they are evaluated by a jury. The Grand Prize Virtuoso is for string, brass and woodwind instruments and also for piano. The candidates are distributed into five age categories. Nikolay was with the youngest contenders aged 13 to 15. The prize that he won implies that all members of the jury have given his performance the maximum score of 100 points and has been invited to have a debut at the celebrated Royal Albert Hall in London. After the winners in the competition were announced we were contacted by the Bulgarian Cultural Center in the British capital. I am impressed with how for just 24 hours they organized a solo concert of Nikolay that will be held on 12 March, a day ahead of prize giving. Apart from works by Bach, Chopin, Schumann and Pancho Vladigerov he is going to play a few jazz pieces. He's got a soft spot for this music, loves improvisation and so I encourage him to play jazz.”

Nikolay Dimitrov started piano lessons at 6 and is currently in the 7th grade of the National School of Art in the city of Rousse. From the very start Daniela Kyurkchieva has been working with him:

„Nikolay is a talented but above all a hardworking and intelligent child who not only plays the piano but also reads a lot, is good at mathematics and has excellent grades. He loves to go out with friends, go to the pictures and play internet games. He is good at improvising jazz and has taken part in the national jazz forum in Rousse. I demand consistency in training and to my mind a rhythmical and gradual upgrading is vital for the growth of an intelligent young musician. Nikolay has already been successful. He is a good chamber performer with his partner Ioana Delimarkova, who is another brilliant student of mine. They appear as a piano duo. Their first success was at the International Schubert Competition in Rousse. They are also holders of a first prize from the American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition. This has given them the chance to appear at the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York. I would like to thank the foundation Rousse the City of Free Spirit for its both moral and financial support. In its program promoting talented Rousse citizens, Nikolay has been nominated as one of the city's ambassadors.”

English Daniela Konstantinova