Katia Popov
violin
Katia Popov was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. She started to play the violin when she was only four years old and could read music long before she knew the alphabet. Considered a child prodigy at school, she went on to receive the highest awards for her performances. She is a first prize winner of the International Svetoslav Obretanov competition, the International Kozian violin competition, 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 the concertmaster of the Sofia Chamber Orchestra and the Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra. Continuing her studies at the Paris Conservatory under Professor Nell Goutkovsky, she participated in solo and chamber music master classes with Tibor Varga, Vladimir Spivakov and Iona Brown. Later, Katia received her Masters degree and concluded her doctoral studies at UCLA under Professor Alexander Treger.
While in Paris, Katia became the concertmaster of the European Symphonic Orchestra. As a soloist and as concertmaster with the ESO and the Sofia Chamber Orchestra, she performed in France, Italy, England, Spain, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Germany and Austria. One of her fondest memories is performing as concertmaster at the Vienna Staats Oper.
After moving to the United States and winning the audition to join the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Katia quickly realized what an incredible ensemble it is and grew to appreciate the Orchestra’s unique sound and dynamics. She cites working with the late Iona Brown as one of the highlights of her LACO experience. “It was a great opportunity for me to work with Iona Brown at LACO. She was my mentor and a great inspiration.”
In Los Angeles, you can also hear Katia perform with the Long Beach Symphony as a principal second violin. She is often called upon to play with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, working with conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Simon Rattle and Zubin Mehta. During the summer, she also performs with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra as a member of the first violin section.
Katia is an avid chamber music performer and is the founder of the Lyric Arts Chamber Players. She formed the California String Quartet together with Andrew Greybill and two of her LACO colleagues, Victoria Miskolczy and Armen Ksajikian. The ensemble performs chamber music throughout the Southland. She has performed at music festivals around the world including the music festival in Malibu, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Samedan Festival in Switzerland, the Brahms Music Festival in France and, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the famous Salzburg Festival in Austria. Her concerts have been broadcast on France’s Canal Plus television station, classical radio stations in Los Angeles and on the Bulgarian and Czech national radios. Her solo recordings are featured on two Balkanton CDs, and she is working on a new CD dedicated to Debussy and Ysaÿe.
Active in the Hollywood studios, Katia has worked on more than 400 motion picture soundtracks with such industry giants as John Williams, Alan Silvestry, David Newman, James Horner, Hans Zimmer and Thomas Newman. She can be heard on recordings with Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, the final recording by Frank Sinatra as well as the on Yo-Yo Ma’s recording of the John Williams cello concerto.
Katia also loves to teach. “[It is] very stimulating, engaging, challenging and full of discoveries.”
When she is not playing the violin or spending time with her family, Katia enjoys painting, making jewelry, gardening and wind-surfing. She lives in Los Angeles with husband Peter, daughter Irina, son Alexander, a cat named Fonzie and a tea-cup Yorkie named Zip.
