Composers

David Ludwig

composer

David Ludwig is the Dean and Director of Music at the Juilliard School in New York City. He holds positions and residencies with nearly two dozen orchestras and music festivals in the United States and abroad, and has received commissions and notable performances from many of the most recognized artists and ensembles of our time, including the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and National Symphony Orchestras, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Dresden Music Festival, as well as Jonathan Biss, Jeremy Denk, Jennifer Koh, Jaime Laredo, David Shifrin, eighth blackbird, the Dover and Borromeo Quartets, Imani Winds, and the PRISM Saxophone Quartet.

In 2025, Ludwig was honored by the American Academy of Arts and Letters as recipient of their annual award in music. In 2022, he was awarded the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the largest of its kind for chamber music. He has received the prestigious Pew Center for the Arts and Heritage Fellowship (2018), as well as awards from New Music USA, the American Composers Forum, the American Music Center, Detroit Chamber Winds, and the National Endowment for the Arts of the United States.

In 2021, Ludwig was named a Steinway Artist by Steinway and Sons. Before being appointed Dean and Director of Music at the Juilliard School, he served on the composition faculty of The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia for nearly two decades. He lives in New York City with his wife, acclaimed violinist Bella Hristova, and their four beloved cats.

Peter Kerkelov

composer

Born in a Bulgarian-Russian family in Plovdiv in 1984, Peter Kerkelov studied at the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in his native city, where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in classical guitar in the class of Milena and Valentin Vulchevi, and a Master’s degree in composition in the class of Prof. Dimitar Tapkoff. He subsequently completed a Master’s degree in composition at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague (Netherlands), where he studied with Martijn Padding and Guus Janssen, and a PhD degree in ethnomusicology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He also specialized in composition with Prof. Dan Dediu at the National University of Music in Bucharest (Romania), and has taken part in masterclasses with composers Louis Andriessen (Netherlands), David Lang (USA), and Kaija Saariaho (Finland).

Kerkelov’s music has an ascetic sincerity and directness that transcend the notion of composition as playground, aiming at the field of philosophy and borrowing from other art forms.

His music has been performed in Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, and the USA, in venues such as Konzerthaus Wien, Gaudeamus Music Week, BOZAR Brussels, and Teatro Massimo, Palermo, and by groups and artists such as the Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble (Netherlands), Bang on a Can All-Stars (USA), Ensemble PHACE (Austria), Musica Nova Sofia Ensemble (Bulgaria), Sofia Soloists (Bulgaria), Ruysdael Kwartet (Netherlands), Antonii Baryshevskyi (Ukraine), and Hayk Melikyan (Armenia).

Kerkelov has been commissioned to create work by the Trio Imàge (Berlin), the CRUSH Ensemble (Germany), the ppIANISSIMO Festival (Bulgaria), the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Dutch Chamber Music Society, and the Royal Conservatory in the Hague. He has also had a fruitful collaboration with the Bulgarian National Radio, where he has recorded Time Etudes with the BNR Orchestra and Choir conducted by Dragomir Yossifov, with Israeli soprano Reut Rivka Shabi; Attempt at Screaming with the Musica Nova Sofia Ensemble, also under Dragomir Yossifov; and Two Symphonies and Postumus with the FROSCH string quartet.

In 2012, Attempt at Screaming won the 59th International Rostrum of Composers in Stockholm in the Under 30 Category, while in 2016, Time Etudes was labelled a “Top 10 recommended work” in the General Category of the 63rd International Rostrum of Composers in Wroclaw. He was also a finalist at the Sentieri Selvaggi Composition Competition in Milan (Italy), and has received scholarships from the Richard Wagner Stipendienstiftung – Bayreuth (Germany), the Schuurman Schimmel van Outeren Stichting (Netherlands), and the Raina Kabaivanska Foundation (Italy/Bulgaria).

Currently, Kerkelov is an Associate Professor and Head of Composition at the Prof. Pancho Vladigerov National Music Adademy in Sofia. He is represented exclusively by the Dutch contemporary music publisher DONEMUS.

Penka Kouneva

composer

Penka Kouneva composes music for television (Dragon Age Absolution, Pandora), film (Aga and Tarika, dir. Milko Lazarov), video games (League of Legends, Prince of Persia), and attractions (Heroes and Legends, John F. Kennedy Space Center). She is the recipient of a Grammy Award for the documentary film Women Warriors: The Voices of Change (2022). Her two orchestral albums – The Woman Astronaut (2015) and Rebirth of Id (2017) - were released by Varese Sarabande (Universal Music).

Penka Kouneva is the author of the symphonic poem The Betrayal of Technology (for the Sofia Philharmonic), of Women Astronauts (for the Los Angeles Philharmonic), as well as two quartets, two trios, and other works. She is the recipient of the Ivan Vazov Medal, the Duke University Alumna Distinction, the BMI Impact Award, the Hollywood Music in Media Award, a Sundance Institute Fellowship, and the Aaron Copland Award. In 2025, with violinist Blagomira Lipari, she co-founded the Bulgarian Classical Concerts – Los Angeles Foundation, whose mission is to promote Bulgarian chamber music in Los Angeles and other American cities.

Penka Kouneva was born in Sofia in 1967. She studied piano with Milka Miteva and Temenuzhka Yaneva at the Lyubomir Pipkov National Music School in Sofia, starting to compose at the age of twelve. She received her doctorate in composition from Duke University in the United States (1997). She lives and works in Hollywood.

Dobrinka Tabakova

composer

Born in Plovdiv, Dobrinka Tabakova has lived in London since 1991, graduating from the Guildhall School of Music, and obtaining a PhD from King’s College London. Her ‘exciting, deeply moving’ music (Washington Times) has been featured in festivals across Europe, including the BBC Proms (UK), Schleswig-Holstein (Germany), Homecoming (Russia), World Sun Songs (Latvia) and Dark Music Days (Iceland). Tabakova has been resident composer at the Davos Summer Festival in Switzerland and Truro Cathedral, Cornwall (UK), as well as with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Swan (Stratford, UK). She has received commissions from the Royal Philharmonic Society in the United Kingdom, BBC Radio 3, and the European Broadcasting Union.

Tabakova’s debut album String Paths, released by the German label ECM Records, was nominated in the Best Classical Compendium category at the 2014 Grammy Awards. In 2017, she was appointed composer-in-residence with the BBC Concert Orchestra (BBCCO). She is the recipient of the prize for an anthem to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee and First Prize and Medallion at the Sorel Choral Composition Contest in New York. Other significant projects include Immortal Shakespeare (2016), a cantata commemorating the British playwright's 400th death anniversary, the multi-commissioned double piano concerto Together Remember to Dance and the choir and strings work Centuries of Meditations for the Three Choirs Festival in Britain, which the PRS Foundation named one of the UK’s best contemporary compositions for the past 25 years. Tabakova’s second album, devoted to choral music and performed by the Truro Cathedral Choir with the BBCCO, was released by Regent Records, receiving a 2019 Critics’ Choice mention by Gramophone Magazine. In 2021, Dobrinka Tabakova completed her orchestral Earth Suite for the BBC Concert Orchestra and the violin concerto The Patience of Trees for the Manchester International Festival. In 2022, she was named The Halle Orchestra's Аrtist in Аssociation.

In 2023, two new commissions from Dobrinka Tabakova were premiered on a tour of the UK’s great cathedrals with vocal ensemble The Sixteen celebrating William Byrd's 400th anniversary, and a new album with The Halle Orchestra was released on the orchestra's own label. Her second ECM album Sun Triptych was released in 2025 to great critical acclaim.

Petko Tanchev

мedia artist and scenographer

Petko Tanchev (b. 1985, Plovdiv) creates interactive mapping installations that fuse virtual and physical worlds. Bold and with an experimental approach, he embraces new tools and emerging technologies to craft impactful, future-facing experiences.

Tanchev holds a master’s degree in Scenography (2010) and a Ph.D. in Digital Arts (2023) from the National Academy of Arts in Sofia. His work integrates digital content into stage productions and public art, exploring the intersections of technology, space, and perception.

Since 2008, Tanchev has contributed to a wide range of productions and exhibitions in Bulgaria and abroad—across galleries, museums, festivals, and in commercial contexts. Notable early projects include his debut as a stage designer for Four Rooms at the Sofia Theater (2009), which received two Icarus Awards – for Scenography and Technical Implementation – and the large-scale interactive installation CNNCTR (2015). From 2016 to 2019, he curated the Creative Media Lab at the Night of Museums and Galleries in Plovdiv.

He co-founded the creative collectives Melformator (2013) and Senselab Studio (2019), the latter producing immersive interactive experiences for global brands such as Porsche, Audi, and The Coca-Cola Company.

An active contributor to Bulgaria’s cultural life, Tanchev played a key role in realizing major events in the Plovdiv 2019 – European Capital of Culture program, including the visual environment for the award winning play Odysseus at the Plovdiv Drama Theater and the stage design for Madame Butterfly at the State Opera Plovdiv (Plovdiv Prize for Audiovisual Arts). He was separately awarded the same prize in the Contemporary Multi-Genre Arts category for his interactive media design for the Opening Gala of Opera Open 2019. Tanchev has collaborated internationally with studios, artists, and directors from the USA, China, Argentina, Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Poland, Malta, and beyond. His work has been presented at exhibitions and video mapping festivals in Beijing, Chongqing, and Yifeng; media and technology shows in Las Vegas and London; and large-scale cultural events in Buenos Aires, Dublin, Valletta, Berlin, and Stuttgart.

In 2022, Tanchev created the visual environment for the opening of the Tesla Light Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia, part of the official Novi Sad 2022—European Capital of Culture program. The following year, he designed lighting and projection mapping for Mystery 0—Mysteries of Transition, a special event for the Opening ceremony of Eleusis 2023—European Capital of Culture in Greece.

Tanchev is currently a stage designer at the State Opera Plovdiv. He also teaches at the Academy of Music, Dance, and Fine Arts in Plovdiv and the National Academy of Arts in Sofia.