Katia Popov was born in Sofia, Bulgaria and started to play the violin when she was only four years old. She could read music long before she learned the alphabet. While at school she was considered a child-prodigy and went on to receive the highest awards for her performances.

She is a First Prize Winner of the International competition “Svetoslav Obretenov,” The International Violin Competition “Kozian” and The International Competition for Russian Music. Katia graduated from the Bulgarian Conservatory of Music with honors and received her Masters of Performance degree. She was a concertmaster of the Sofia Chamber Orchestra, as well as of the Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra. Continuing her studies in the Paris Conservatory under Professor Nell Goutkovsky she became the First Concertmaster of the European Symphonic Orchestra.

She also participated in solo and chamber music master classes with Tibor Varga, Vladimir Spivakov, Iona Brown and took part in many music festivals, including Oregon Bach Festival, Salzburg with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Samedan in Switzerland and Brahms Music Festival in France. Her concerts were broadcasted on the Bulgarian and Czech National Radios, as well as in Los Angeles and on television including Canal Plus in France.

After moving to the United States, Katia became a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and a principal second violin in The Long Beach Symphony. She is the first female concertmaster of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and has performed numerous times with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen, Simon Rattel and Zubin Mehta. Popov received her master’s and concluded her doctoral studies at UCLA, studying with Alexander Treger.

Popov’s performances as a soloist and a concertmaster of the European Symphonic Orchestra and the Sofia Chamber Orchestra have taken her around the world, including Austria where she has performed as a concertmaster at the Vienna Statz Opera. She has recorded for more then 400 motion picture scores with composers such as John Williams, Alan Silvestri, David Newman, James Horner, Hans Zimmer and Thomas Newman. She has recorded for Barbara Streisand, Celine Dion, the last recording of Frank Sinatra and has recorded the John Williams’s cello concerto featuring Yo-Yo Ma. Her solo recordings are featured on two CDs (Balkanton) and she is working on her new CD, dedicated to the works of Ysay and Debussi.

Popov is an avid chamber music performer and is a founder of the Lyric Arts Chamber Players and a founder and first violinist of the California String Quartet. She is also a music director of the Musical Sunday Afternoons, a chamber, orchestral, jazz and choral music series at the First Christian Church in Studio City.

She lives in Los Angeles with her husband Peter, their daughter Irina, son Alexander and the yorkie, Zip. She enjoys painting, jewelry making, gardening and skiing.

http://katiapopov.com/

photo Michael Miller