Plamena Mangova won the second prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2007 and embarked on an international career. She made her studies with Marina Kapatsinskaya at the Pancho Vladigerov Sofia State Music Academy in Bulgaria, and then at the Queen Sofia Higher Music School, Madrid with the eminent teacher Dmitri Bashkirov and Claudio Martinez Mehner. She also worked with Abdel-Rahman El Bacha at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Belgium and received the advice of renowned musicians such as Leon Fleisher, Rosalyn Tureck, Krystian Zimerman and Andras Schiff. She is a Laureate of various prestigious international piano and chamber music competitions, including Paloma O’Shea in Santander and Vittorio Gui in Florence, as well as the Juventus Festival in France.
Ms Mangova performs with leading orchestras, such as the philharmonic orchestras of Rotterdam, Radio France, Luxembourg, Tokyo, National Orchestra of Belgium, European Union Chamber Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, RAI Torino Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, MDR Orchester Leipzig, RTVE Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic, Verbier Festival Orchestra and the symphony orchestras of Tatarstan, St. Petersburg, Trondheim, Taipei, New Zealand, and the Bulgarian Radio Orchestra. Conductor collaborations include: Sir Colin Davis, Myung-Whun Chung, Sir Andrew Davis, Emmanuel Krivine, Walter Weller, Maxim Vengerov, Emil Tabakov, Tadaaki Otaka, Jaap van Zweden, Dmitri Jurowski, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Karl Heinz Steffens, Gilbert Varga, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Alexander Sladkovsky, Cristian Mandeal, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Howard Griffiths, Pinchas Steinberg and François-Xavier Roth.
A keen chamber music player, she has performed with Maria Joao Pires, Boris Berezovsky, Augustin Dumay, Kolja Blacher, Sergej Krylov, Mihaela Martin, Jian Wang, Pascal Moragues, Alexei Ogrintchouk, Alexander Kniazev, Frans Helmerson, Mihaela Martin and the Ysaye String Quartet among others.
Ms Mangova performed at the Berlin Philharmonie, BOZAR Brussels, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Kennedy Center Washington, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Munich Herkulesaal, Bonn Beethovenhaus, Philharmonic Halls of Vilnius and Riga, South Bank Center London, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Moscow Conservatory concert hall, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Arsenal de Metz, Théâtre du Châtelet, Théâtre des Champs Elysées and Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, and at major festivals such as Progetto Martha Argerich Lugano, Verbier Academy, La Folle Journée Nantes and Tokyo, La Roque d'Anthéron, Rostropovich Festival in Moscow and Baku, Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival, Santander, Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, Montpellier Radio France Festival, Festival de Menton, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Bach Akademie Stuttgart.
Her first solo CD recording (Shostakovich) was awarded a Diapason d'Or of the year 2007. A chamber music disc by the same composer followed with soprano Tatiana Melnychenko, violinist Natalia Prischepenko and cellist Sebastian Klinger which was awarded the Superfonic Prize in Pizzicato magazine. Her Beethoven disc (sponsored by the Belgian Bank Fortis), was highly praised by France Musique and Diapason, as were her exceptional recordings of Strauss' Burleske (2008) and Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 (2010) with the Belgium National Orchestra and Walter Weller (Fuga Libera label). The latter was highly praised by Bryce Morrison in Gramophone magazine. The last CD, highly praised too, was recorded with the cellist Alexander Kniazev and dedicated to Franck and Ysaÿ.
Recent and future highlights performances of 2017/18 season include: her debut with the Staatskapelle Berlin Orchestra (in the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin); a performance with the Hamburger Symphoniker at the Elbphilharmony in Hamburg; concerts with the National Polish Orchestra, the Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Latvian National Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic and Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra; in collaboration with the conductors Lawrence Foster, Gilbert Varga, Howard Griffith, Pablo Heras-Casado, Jun Markl, Yaron Traub, Andris Poga, and Mark Kadin. She will also perform in recital at the Maison de la Radio in Paris and will participate at several festivals such as La Roque d’Anthéron International Piano Festival, Folle Journée in Nantes, the Dubrovnik Festival and the Chamber Music Festival in Jerusalem. Moreover, she is invited to give a masterclass at the Park University, Kansas City, USA.
(photo: Marco Borggreve)
