Boian Videnoff was born in 1987 in Sofia, Bulgaria to a family of well-known musicians. He received his first musical education at the age of four from his parents, Prof. Dora Bratchkova, first concertmaster of the German Radio Philharmonic, and Liubomir Videnoff, a noted baritone.
After several years of violin lessons with his mother and piano training in the class of Prof. Rudolf Meister at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Mannheim he began his conducting studies under the guidance of Prof. Jorma Panula. Later in 2008 he entered the conducting program at the prestigious Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena under M° Gianluigi Gelmetti. Prominent conductors such as Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Günther Herbig, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski and Marcello Viotti have been important musical influences on Videnoff.
Since his conducting debut in Germany, at the age of eighteen, Boian Videnoff has appeared as a guest conductor with several orchestras in concert tours throughout Europe and Asia. His teacher Prof. Panula refers to him as “very musical” and praises “his expressive hands” and “his good memory”. In 2009 Videnoff founded the Mannheimer Philharmoniker, a young professional orchestra that serves as a platform between study and work, to provide young musicians the chance to gain orchestra experience and succeed at auditions for permanent positions. As its Artistic Director and chief conductor he regularly works with internationally acclaimed soloists, such as Johannes Moser, Sergei Nakariakov, Alena Baeva, Mona Asuka Ott, Alexander Gilman, Stefan Tarara and others. Renowned cellist Johannes Moser recognized after his collaboration with Videnoff his “great talent to inspire musicians to excel in what they are doing and be the best version of themselves”. Moser was also “struck by his musical initiative and communication with his fellow musicians.” The legendary conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky pointed out, that “the young conductor has all necessary qualities for a very successful professional career.”
Boian Videnoff is devoted to promoting classical music to younger generations. His strong belief and engagement resulted in the project Junior Philharmoniker, a social educative program with free lesson-concerts and instrumental music training for children from the age of six to eighteen.
In 2011 he made his debut at the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and at the Orchestra Sinfonica di Bari. In the same season he toured China with 13 concerts in major provinces of the country with the Mannheimer Philharmoniker. Some of these concerts were broadcasted live on TV where 30 million people were watching. From 2006 to 2008 Boian Videnoff regularly worked as a guest conductor with the Varna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Mannheimer Ensemble. In September 2008 he was chosen by Gustavo Dudamel to conduct the Simón Bolívar Orchestra within a masterclass with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. In addition he has conducted the following orchestras during several workshops, masterclasses and their final concerts: I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, the Sofia Festival Orchestra, the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academic State Symphony Orchestra St. Petersburg.
