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Galin Ganchev (Галин Ганчев, Galin Ganchev; born 4 September 1996) is a Bulgarian classical pianist. He is currently a scholarship student (he holds the Toba Mann scholarship) in the Royal Academy of Music, where he studies piano with Ian Fountain and piano accompaniment with Michael Dussek.

Biography
Galin Ganchev was raised in a musical family. His father Gancho Ganchev is a conductor and a musical director and his mother Miglena Shisheva is a pianist and vocal coach. His maternal grandparents were also musicians – his grandfather Shisho Shishev was a viola player and choral conductor, his grandmother Marijka Shisheva was a violinist.

Galin has been studying piano since the age of six. He first started learning piano in the |National School of Arts “Dobri Hristov” in Varna with piano teacher Eli Chorbadjijska for six years. When he was twelve, Stanislava Stavreva took over his pianistic development for another year. In Bulgaria he took part in many concerts and competitions. In Sofia he won a special prize in the |“Young Virtuosi Competition” (April, 2009) for playing ‘’Chaconne with 21 variations’’ from George Frideric Handel and then he played in the winners’ concert of the competition in Varna. Another competition that Galin took part in is “Magic - for German and Austrian piano music” in which he was highly commended. He also took part in Michael Roll’s master class and played in the subsequent concert of the chosen pianists. He also played in many school concerts – for example “Tchaikovsky’s seasons’ concert” and “Chopin’s works’ concert”. In the period 2002 - 2010 Galin spent eight years of his life going to rehearsals and performances of the “Varna Children’s Opera” which was directed by his parents, Gancho and Miglena. With the members of the opera Galin has had over 100 appearances on stage in major musicals, sometimes playing main parts – for example the Kid from Charlie Chaplin’s film “The Kid”. In May, 2009 he was invited to play in the “International Charity Gala Concert” which takes place in November the same year, and is organized by Gareth Jenkins in the Maidment Auditorium of Shrewsbury School (Charles Darwin’s school), in the United Kingdom. There he played next to high-class musicians such as Phillip Griffiths, Stephen Garner, Susie Allan and John Moore. After his performance in the recital Galin received an invitation to study piano with Anglo-Italian pianist |Peter Bradley-Fulgoni in the musical department of Shrewsbury School. In the following year the idea of him going to England was taken more seriously. In February 2010, he traveled to England to defend the musical scholarship that was offered to him by the school. From the beginning of September 2010 he was accepted at Shrewsbury School as a 100% Charles Burney scholar. There he studied piano and composition with internationally acclaimed musicians – the pianist |Peter Bradley-Fulgoni and the conductor and composer John Moore.

In the period 2010-2015, as a student, Ganchev has 9 appearances in competitions including Llangollen and Trefeglwys, in which he won the first prize twice; Gregynog and |BBC Shropshire, in which he gained the ‘’Young musician of the year’’ title in 2012. He takes part in more than 70 concerts in the United Kingdom, Bulgaria and Italy. He has played in renowned halls such as Wigmore Hall, |Hollywell Music Room, Warehouse, |Machynlleth Tabernacle, Varna Opera Theatre, Varna Festival and Congress Centre and others. During his time in Shrewsbury Galin had five full-length piano recitals in the United Kingdom, six in Bulgaria and one in Italy. He has also collaborated with the Vidin Philharmonic, Shrewsbury School, Shropshire Philharmoic and Varna Philharmonic orchestras with conductors such as Svilen Simeonov, Francesco Lanzillotta, Robert Wysome and John Moore.

More recently Ganchev performed [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._1_(Liszt)|F. Liszt’s First piano concerto] in the distinguished European Music Festival in Varna, Bulgaria, with the Varna Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Martin Georgiev. In November he took part as one of the two pianists in [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concerto_for_Two_Pianos_and_Orchestra_(Poulenc)|F. Poulenc’s ‘’Concerto for two pianos’’] in the festival ‘’Shalom and friends’’.

Ganchev has also recently started giving the premieres of his own works, the first of which was the ‘’Nocturne in e minor’’ for solo piano, op.7 (played in a recital in April, 2017).

Galin has taken part in master classes with internationally renowned musicians such as Michael Roll, Yevgeny Sudbin, Tatiana Sarkissova, Michael Foyle, Jack Liebeck, Pascal Devoyon, |Adrian Brendel, Imogen Cooper and others.

Special gratitude to Gareth and Elizabeth Jenkins, John Moore and |Peter Bradley-Fulgoni for their masterful guidance, constant support and generosity to Galin, with the help of which he manages to continue successfully on his musical path.

Repertoire
His repertoire includes more than 130 pieces of music – most of which are solo and concerto works. He has performed masterworks from composers from the Baroque to Contemporary eras – just to name a few: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphonic_Studies_(Schumann)|R. Schumann’s ‘’Etudes Symphoniques’’], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Sonata_in_B_minor_(Liszt)|F. Liszt’s ‘’B minor Sonata’’], |L.van Beethoven’s ‘’Appassionata’’ and |‘’Waldstein’’ sonatas, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Sonata_No._6_(Prokofiev)|S. Prokofiev’s 6th] and |8thpiano sonatas, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_(Grieg)|E. Grieg’s ‘’a minor piano concerto’’], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._2_(Brahms)|J. Brahm’s] |‘’Second Piano Concerto’’, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._3_(Rachmaninoff)|S. Rachmaninoff’s ‘’Third Piano Concerto’’], and many others.