Veselina Manikova

Veselina Manikova is born in Ruse (Bulgaria).She received her Bachelor Diploma at the National Academy of Music, Sofia ( Bulgaria) and Prins Claus Conservatorium, and her Master Diploma with the highest mark and a distinction of “a perfect combination of virtuosity and musicality” at the Royal Conservatoire of Music (The Hague, The Netherlands) where she studied with Vera Beths. 

Veselina has won many national and international prizes, among others, first prizes of all national competitions in Bulgaria, first prize for chamber music and Milka Violin Grant,the special Award of the Markow Totevy Foundation (New Jersey,USA).

Veselina  performs in diverse ensembles ranging from duos to octets at the International George Enescu Music Festival (Romania), Schleswich-Holstein Music Festival  ( Germany), Pacific Music Festival (Japan),  Chamber Music Festival Bohuslav Martinu (Czech republic), International Festival March Musical Days (Bulgaria),  Peter de Grote Festival, The International Muziekzomer Festival Gelderland (The Netherlands), Fontainebleau Music Summer Session , Masters de Belesbat (France), The International Music Festival in Simferopol (Ukraïne) ,Moskou Easter Festival (Russia) and many others.

Veselina held guest leading positions in many orchestras like Belgium Chamber Orchestra (Casco Phil,Belgium), Kamerata Stradivarius, Kamerata Amsterdam,the New European Strings Chamber Orchestra, the Tiroler Symphonieorchester Innsbruck (Austria), the Aalborg Symphonic Orchestra (Denmark), the Cheliabinsk Philharmonic Orchestra (Russia) and by personal invitation of Valery Gergiev,in the Festival orchestra of the Moscow Easter Festival .

Veselina worked with conductors like Bernard Haitink, Edo de Waart, Yutaka Sado, Valery Gergiev, Fabio Luisi, Christoph Eisenbach, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Kryzstof Penderecki, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Cristobal Halffter and Wen Pin Chien.

In 1996 -2001 Veselina was a deputy concertmaster of Ruse Philharmonic  Orchestra (Bulgaria) and from 2001-2004 she was part of Trio “ Illyria” and since 2005 till now she is a member of Goldberg piano trio.

Since 2002 Veselina is first deputy concertmaster of the North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra. Since 2007 Veselina is a violin docent at the Prins Claus Conservatorium (Groningen, The Netherlands).