Bobby Kostadinov

Bobby Kostadinov, born in 1999 in Leipzig, began playing the cello at the age of seven. He received his first lessons from Sven Schreiber at the “Johann Sebastian Bach” Music School in Leipzig and was later admitted to the youth development class of Anna Niebuhr. From 2017 to 2024, he studied with Prof. Peter Bruns at the University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig, graduating with top honors. He also received artistic guidance from Claudio Bohorquez, Maximilian Hornung, Marc Coppey, Siegfried Pank, Wenn-Sin Yang, and others.

Bobby is a multiple first and second prize winner in over 40 national and international competitions and has received numerous awards: he won four first federal prizes in “Jugend musiziert” with the highest scores. In addition, he received numerous special prizes from institutions such as the German Music Foundation, the Hummel Society Weimar, the Ingeborg Fahrenkamp-Schäffler Foundation, the Holger Koppe Foundation (Central German Youth Music Prize), the Chopin Society Leipzig, the Liszt Foundation Weimar, and EMCY. With his ensembles, he also won the enviaM competition “Music from Municipalities” four times in a row from 2014 to 2017. Moreover, he is a prizewinner of the WESPE Competition for the best interpretation of banned music and a recipient of the Mendelssohn Young Artist Award.

Internationally, he gained recognition with a first prize at the “Primuz Strings Competition” (Poland), a second prize at the “Allegra” Competition (Bulgaria) including special prizes, and a second prize at the Vienna New Years Concert Competition and Carl Bechstein Competition in Berlin. Later, he exclusively won multiple first prizes at the World’s Best Musicians Competition, the Gustav Mahler Cello Competition (category winner in the oldest group and special prize), the International Fanny Mendelssohn Competition, the International Brahms Competition, the North International Music Competition in Sweden, the international Gabriel Fauré Competition (overall cello category winner), the 12th Stockholm International Competition (SIMC), and the France Music Competition.

Bobby Kostadinov has gained extensive orchestral experience, including as principal cellist of the Leipzig Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has performed as a soloist with this ensemble, the Bergische Symphoniker, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Württemberg Philharmonic Reutlingen, and others. As a chamber musician and soloist, he has appeared multiple times on the MDR-Clara Tour and at festivals such as the Kurt Weill Festival, the ALLEGRA Festival in Bulgaria, the MDR Musiksommer, and the Cello Festival in Rutesheim. His concerts have been broadcast by MDR, HR, and NDR. Furthermore, he has performed solo in internationally renowned concert halls such as the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Sala Bulgaria, and in autumn 2025 at Carnegie Hall in New York.

In 2023, he secured an internship with the MDR Symphony Orchestra and was subsequently contracted for the 2024/25 season.

In addition to his artistic activities, Bobby has been involved in social artistic projects for refugees, people with physical and mental disabilities, terminally ill individuals, and children, in cooperation with the European Union, EMCY, and the Flying Gorillas (headquartered in London).

As a scholarship holder, he has been supported by, among others, the Rotary Club Herbst ’89, the Jürgen Ponto Foundation of COMMERZBANK (since 2016), the German Music Foundation (since 2018), the Barthel Foundation (since 2021), Live Music Now Yehudi Menuhin (since 2022), and SIMC (2025). He plays a cello by Michael Stürzenhofecker, Cully 2012, from the German Musical Instrument Fund.