Lora Markova

Lora Markova
Violin

Lora Markova

Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Lora started studying violin at the age of 5 in the National School of Music “Lyubomir Pipkov” in Sofia, in the class of the most prominent  Bulgarian pedagogue Blagorodna Taneva. Since 2022 she is a student of prof. Kolja Blacher at the Academy of Music “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin.

She is a laureate of numerous First prizes from national competitions such as “Young Virtuosos” 2013, “Dobrin Petkov”2013, “Nedyalka Simeonova”2014, and  “Grand Prix” form “Music and Earth” 2018, “Hopes, Masters, Talents”2019, Nedyalka Simeonova” and others. Lora is also the holder of the Annual Prize of “Stoyan Kambarev” Arts Foundation for 2021. Her international achievements include major prizes from competitions like: “Andrea Postacchini “ and “Piccolo Violino” in Italy, “Anton Rubinstein” Germany, “Odesa” Ukraine, “Concertino Praga”, Czech Republic.

In 2020 she won First Prize from the International Violin Competition “Leonid Kogan” in Brussels and in 2021 she was awarded First Prize from “Tibor Varga Junior” Violin Competition in Switzerland which leads to multiple concert opportunities for her and an invitation by the Swiss Artist Agency “AMG Rising Stars” to perform recitals in Basel and Geneva.

She has been appearing as a soloist in many festivals in concerts, to name some of them: “Colourful Days of Bulgaria” Germany, “Musica Mundi” Belgium, „Treasures of Bulgaria” Carnegie Hall, New York and others in France, Italy, Greece, Switzerland, Portugal, Austria and worked with conductors Domenico Mason, Giancarlo Guarino, Leonid Kerbel, Marek Šedivý, Alexander Gordon.

In Bulgaria Lora is a sought after solo artist and performs at concerts with leading Bulgarian philharmonic orchestras in Pleven, Vidin, Vratsa, Shumen, Sliven, Sofia in collaboration with conductors Emil Tabakov, Grigor Palikarov, Yordan Kamdzhalov, Maxim Eshkenazy, Pavel Zlatarov, Tsanislav Petkov, Kalina Vasileva. Lora is also committed to chamber and ensemble music playing. She is often invited by some of the outstanding musicians of the new generations but also by prominent names in classical music to share the stage in different festivals and events in Germany, Finland, Switzerland and Bulgaria. In 2021 with her duo partner Syon Najman (cello) they received First Prizes from the competitions “Music and Earth” and “Cantus Firmus” Sofia and the Special Prize of “Bohuslav Martinu” Foundation from “Concertino Praga” International Competition. In 2023 the duo successfully completes a tour of concerts in Prague, Paris, Berlin, Antwerp and Sofia.

Inspired by ensemble playing, Lora is a frequent guest in different music Festivals such as Gstaad Menuhin Academy in Switzerland, Lead Festival in Finland, Stradivari Fest in Switzerland, Allegra Festival in Bulgaria, Niederlenzer Musiktage in Switzerland, Oropa Festival in Italy and many more. She played alongside Boris Garlitsky, Thomas Riebl, Alexander Zemtsov, Andrey Baranov, Stefan Tarara, Sergey Malov, Kyril Zlotnikov and the members of Stradivari quartet.

Lora is a scholarship holder of Leonidas Kavakos for the year 2021. She plays a 1869 violin by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, kindly given to her by “Villa Musica” Foundation in Germany.