Svetlin Roussev

With his immediately recognisable sound and exceptional virtuosity, Svetlin Roussev carries forward the tradition of the golden age of violin playing. As a soloist and chamber musician, he has also developed a significant career directing ensembles and orchestras from the violin. His vast repertoire extends from the most demanding reaches of the virtuoso violin literature to the Baroque and contemporary music, while reflecting both his Bulgarian musical roots and the great tradition of the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing, inherited through his training in France.

Roussev has appeared as soloist with the Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Hamburger Symphoniker, Orquesta Sinfónica RTVE, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and Kremerata Baltica, among others. He has worked with conductors including Lionel Bringuier, Myung-Whun Chung, Pablo González, Marek Janowski, Emmanuel Krivine, Delyana Lazarova, Vahan Mardirossian, Yehudi Menuhin, Jonathan Nott, François-Xavier Roth, Dennis Russell Davies, Emil Tabakov and Yuzo Toyama.

Directing ensembles and orchestras from the violin has long been a central strand of Roussev’s career. Since 2000, he has led a wide range of ensembles and orchestras across Europe and Asia. In 2022, he was among the founders of the Going Home Project (GHP), an international orchestra bringing together Korean musicians based around the world and musicians for whom Korea has become a second home. As Music Director of GHP, Roussev leads the orchestra from the violin, without a conductor on the podium. Under his musical direction, GHP has performed the complete symphonies and overtures by Beethoven and the complete orchestral works by Ravel, and is currently undertaking a major two-year project encompassing the complete symphonies of Shostakovich alongside concertos by leading composers of the twentieth century.

Chamber music has remained an essential part of his musical identity. For many years, he has performed as a member of the Roussev–Salque–Rozanova Trio with cellist François Salque and pianist Elena Rozanova. His longstanding musical partnership with pianist Yeol Eum Son has also extended to the recording studio, including Midnight Bells and Love Music, released by Naïve in 2024.

Roussev’s discography reflects both the breadth of his musical interests and a continuing exploration of his own musical roots. Among these, the music of Pancho Vladigerov, one of the defining figures of Bulgarian music, occupies a particularly important place. Roussev has devoted an album to his works for violin and piano, while Fire and Ice pairs his First Violin Concerto with the Sibelius Violin Concerto, reflecting Roussev’s longstanding commitment to bringing his music to a wider international audience.

His connection to the Franco-Belgian school of violin playing is expressed particularly strongly through his longstanding exploration of the music of Eugène Ysaÿe. From De l’école franco-belge du violon in 2008 and Neiges d’antan in 2016 to Poème nocturne in 2025, Roussev has repeatedly returned to Ysaÿe, recording both solo and orchestral works, including a number of rarely performed scores.

His discography also includes Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, the complete works for violin and orchestra by Tchaikovsky, and works by Ravel, Grieg, Medtner, Frank Martin and Hartmann.

Born in Ruse, Bulgaria, into a family of violinists, Roussev began playing the violin at the age of five and a half. At fifteen, he was admitted to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), where his teachers included Devy Erlih and Jean-Jacques Kantorow. In 2001, he won First Prize at the inaugural Sendai International Music Competition, as well as the Audience Prize and the Special Prize for the best performance of a Bach concerto, having previously been a prizewinner at major international competitions including Indianapolis and Long-Thibaud. In 2008, he returned to his alma mater, the CNSMDP, joining its faculty as one of the youngest professors in the institution’s history, and continues to teach there today. From 2017 to 2022, he also taught at the Haute école de musique de Genève.

Roussev holds a special place in the musical life of his native Bulgaria. He has been named Musician of the Year by Bulgarian National Radio, received the Crystal Lyre three times, and was named an Honorary Citizen of Ruse in 2018. In 2019, he was awarded the Honorary Sign of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria for his contribution to the performing arts.

In 2026, his project performing all six Sonatas for Solo Violin by Ysaÿe and all 24 Caprices by Paganini on the same stage in a single day was named “Musical Project of the Year” in Bulgarian National Radio’s national “Musician of the Year” poll. In September of the same year, he received the “Apollon Toxophoros” award from the Apollonia Festival of Arts.

Roussev has also served as Artist-in-Residence and Artistic Director of the Sofia Philharmonic, as well as Artistic Adviser to the International March Music Days Festival in Ruse.

The 2026–27 season highlights the remarkable breadth of Roussev’s concerto repertoire. In Bulgaria, he performs the Sibelius Violin Concerto and Emil Tabakov’s Concerto for Violin, Percussion and Mixed Choir with the Sofia Philharmonic in separate concerts, and, in a single concert with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Paganini’s Violin Concertos Nos. 1, 3 and 5. At the International March Music Days Festival in his native Ruse, he performs the Khachaturian Violin Concerto with the Festival Orchestra. Elsewhere during the season, his repertoire includes Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the İzmir State Symphony Orchestra, Chausson’s Poème and Ravel’s Tzigane with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Murcia Symphony Orchestra, and Richard Strauss’s Violin Concerto with the Stuttgart Philharmonic. He also gives recitals across Asia, including Korea, Japan and Hong Kong, and serves on the jury of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, one of the world’s leading violin competitions.

Svetlin Roussev currently performs on the 1716 “Baron Wittgenstein” Stradivarius, on loan from the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture.