Lyubomir Denev JR is a conductor and composer born in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1988. In 2019 he was awarded third prize at The Los Angeles Conducting Competition and first prize at The 7/8 Composing Competition for his ‘Balkan Suite’ performed by The Sofia Philharmonic. He has been the principal conductor of Pioneer Youth Philharmonic since 2010 and was the music director/founder and principal conductor of Sofia Session Orchestra at the recording company Four For Music from 2012 to 2019. With the Sofia Session Orchestra Denev has conducted scores by Alan Silvestri, Ennio Morricone, Harry and Rupert Gregson-Williams, Brian Tyler, Thomas Bergersen, Mario Grigorov, George Strezov, Penka Kouneva as well as music for the TV series ‘The Crown’, ‘Ripper Street’, the video games LEGO Dimensions, LEGO Marvel’s ‘Avengers’, LEGO ‘The Incredibles’.
Denev has been a guest conductor in many orchestras in Bulgaria among them Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, The Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Big Band and Choir, New Symphony Orchestra, Rousse State Opera, Plovdiv State Opera, Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra and others. As a guest conductor in Rousse State Opera House Denev conducted stage performances of ‘La Traviata’ by Verdi and ‘The Elixir of Love’ by Donizetti. In 2012 Denev was appointed as a pianist at The National Opera and Ballet in Sofia where he assisted Richard Trimborn for Wagner’s ‘Twilight of the Gods’.
Denev had successful tours and concerts with Pioneer Youth Philharmonic in Vienna at Musikverein, Minoritenkirche and MuTh, Berlin, Konzerthaus, Hungary, Serbia, Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria. With other Bulgarian orchestras Denev conducted tours in China and Abu Dhabi. Denev is the conductor and one of the establishers of The Balkan Youth Symphony Orchestra in collaboration with the Ministry of Education of Bulgaria, Foundation Prof. Vladi Simeonov and a few Music Schools on the Balkan Peninsula.
Denev has conducted concerts with the soloists Lisa Gerrard, Juan Garcia Herreros, Svetlin Roussev, Sava Stoyanov, Kaludi Kaludov, Mariana Tsvetkova and others.
Denev’s music, arrangements and orchestrations have been performed and recorded for dozens of live concerts, TV and cinema projects and radio broadcasts in the USA, UK, Germany, Austria and Bulgaria. Denev has conducted and recorded many original albums for FPM Music UK, APM USA and other libraries. As orchestrator Denev works with London Musical Theatre Orchestra. Many orchestras performed Denev’s music such as The Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sofia Philharmonic, Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, Sofia Session Orchestra, Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra and others.
Denev graduated with piano from the National School of Music in Sofia, afterwards he was accepted into the Opera-Symphony Conducting program at the National Academy of Music where he graduated with a Master’s Degree and a PhD. His piano professor was Ivan Drenikov (Arturo Michelangeli’s student). Denev studied conducting with Deyan Pavlov (Karl Osterreicher’s student), Prof. Colin Metters, Neil Thomson, Dr. Scott Wiss, Jin Wang, Martin Akerwall and Plamen Djourov. Denev studied orchestration with Alexander Tekeliev.