Artist Biography
Canadian cellist Velitchka Yotcheva was born in Bulgaria where she took private lessons with Bulgarian cellist Tacho Tachev. After winning two competitions in her native Bulgaria, she entered the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow at age 18, where she studied with Valentin Feigin and Marina Tchaikovskaya, who was an assistant to Mstislav Rostropovich, and chamber music with Alexander Korchagin, a member of the Shostakovich Quartet. Although Yotcheva completed her master's degree in 1992, she didn't obtain her doctorate until 2000, and that was at the University of Montreal, where she studied under Yuli Turovsky. A Canadian citizen since 1995, Yotcheva is artistic director of the Montreal Chamber Music Society and the founder of the Trio Rachmaninoff de Montréal, one of the premier chamber ensembles in Canada. Yotcheva participates in many music festivals in both Canada and abroad, and teaches master classes to aspiring chamber musicians. Yotcheva primarily records for the Canadian Atma Classique label.
Hometown
Bulgaria
Genre
Classical