site.btaYoung Bulgarian Pianist Scores Remarkable Success at Major International Contest in Spain

Bulgarian pianist Roberto Rumenov has achieved a remarkable success that is not on the record of any other Bulgarian musician, BTA learnt from musicologist and journalist Zdravka Andreeva.

At the 65th edition of the Premio Jaén International Piano Contest in Jaén, Spain (April 4-13, 2024), which is one of the most prestigious international competitions and the longest running one for pianists in that country, Rumenov won the Second Prize and the special Audience Prize.

At the grand final of the contest at the Infanta Leonor Theatre on April 13, the 24-year-old Bulgarian performed Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, accompanied by the Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Salvador Vázquez.

The Second Prize of the competition is sponsored by the Associated Centre of the National University of Distance Education (UNED) in Jaén and comes with a EUR 12,000 cash award. The Audience Prize consists of a bronze statuette, with no prize money, and is awarded by the Association of Friends of the Piano Competition.

This year, the seven prizes were contested by 98 entrants from 26 countries.

Born in Sofia in 2000, Roberto started playing the piano at age 6. When 10 years old, he was admitted to the Lyubomir Pipkov National School of Music, where his first instructor was Antonina Boneva. Later on, the young man attended the Més Música School of Music in Palma de Mallorca for four years. He settled with his family in Madrid in 2016, and that same year entered the Federico Moreno Torroba Centre for Music Education (CIEM), where he was tutored by Javier Rovira Navarro. Between 2018 and 2022 he studied at the Royal Superior Conservatory of Music of Madrid (RCSMM) under Graham Jackson and Mariana Gurkova. He earned there a Bachelor of Music degree in 2023. Currently, he is pursuing his studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire under Prof. Pascal Nemirovsky.

Rumenov joined various festivals and master classes given by Márta Gulyás, Piotr Folkert, Óscar Caravaca, Minnie Man Ho, Gustavo Díaz Jerez and Marco Tezza, to mention but a few. In 2020 he won the Superior Grade category of the Intercentros Melómano Prize in Alicante, thanks to which he has been touring Spain since the summer of 2021, presenting eleven different solo recitals in a number of cities, including Madrid in early 2024 with the Spanish Radio and Television (RTVE) Symphony Orchestra. He has also been holding concerts in Italy and France.

The media have lauded him as "one of the major young talents on today's piano stage".

In Bulgaria, the young pianist debuted at the Bulgaria Chamber Hall in Sofia on November 2, 2023. On March 9, 2024, he performed in concert as a soloist with the Sofia Sinfonietta Orchestra, conducted by Minko Lambov.