Ivaylo Vassilev was born in 2007 in Sofia and studies piano in the National Music School in Sofia. He made his first steps with prof. Emilia Kaneva and since 2019 he studies with prof. Borislava Taneva ( National Music Academy in Sofia). In parallel since 2023 he started his studies in PreCollege program of Zurich University of Arts with prof. Konstantin Scherbakov.
At the age of 16, he has an impressive collection of more than 30 prizes from international competitions in Bulgaria, Russia, Finland, Singapore, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Czechia, Greece, Germany, Kazakhstan, France, UK – mostly first prizes and Grand-Pix. Amongst them are: I prize and “Discovery” prize at International Piano Competition “Anna Artobolevskaya”, Moscow (2017), Grand-prix at International Piano Competition “De Bach Au Jazz”, Athens (2018); Golden Nutckracker at XIX International TV Competition for Young Musicians “Nutcracker”, Moscow (2018); I prize at International Piano Competition “La Note Celeste”, Paris (2020); Grand-prix at XVII International Piano Competition “Schumann-Brahms”, Plovdiv, Bulgaria (2020); I prize and special prize for the best B. Bartok Performance at X International Piano Competition “Liszt-Bartok”, Sofia (2020); I prize and Grand Prix at Bulgarian National Radio Competition for Young musicians “Cantus Firmus”, Sofia (2021); I prize at “Euregio Piano Award” International Piano Competition, Geilenkirchen, Germany (2022); I prize at Lancaster International Piano Festival and Competition (USA, 2022); I prize and Audience Prize at “Ventsislav Yankov” National Piano Competition, Sofia (2023);
Ivaylo has played in many piano festivals, amongst them 2023 Cliburn Junior Piano Festival (Dallas), Lancaster International Piano Festival (Lancaster, USA, 2022), “Wunderkinder” (Toblach, Italy, 2018), “Musical Olympus” (St. Petersburg, 2019), “Moscow Meets Friends” (Moscow, 2019), has attended many masterclasses with world known pianists and pedagogues, including Ludmil Angelov, Dmitry Bashkirov, Vladimir Ovchinnikov, Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń, Vincenzo Balzani, Vasily Ilisavsky, Wuu Han, Daniel Rivera, Alexander Kobrin.
He has had the chance to perform in emblematic halls, like the Great Hall and Rachmaninoff Hall of Moscow State Conservatory, Tchaikovsky Hall, the House of Music in Moscow, Symphonic Capella in St. Petersburg, Luxembourg Philharmonie, Jumeirah Zabee Music Hall in Dubai, the Great Hall of Ghent’s Opera, Bulgaria Hall in Sofia.
He has already many times had solo piano recitals in Bulgaria, also in Moscow (2020). Luxembourg (2021) and Warsaw (2022).
As a soloist he has performed with famous conductors, like Pavel Balev, Sascha Goetzel, Konstantin Ilievsky, Grigor Palikarov, Vyacheslav Valeev, Alexander Titov, Alexander Chernushenko, Mikhail Kirkhoff, Igor Lerman and others, with many Bulgarian and Russian orchestras, including the four major Bulgarian ones – Sofia Philharmonic, Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra, Classic FM orchestra and Varna Philharmonic, as well as with Russian Philharmonic Orchestra in Tchaikovsky Hall and Great Hall of Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.
His first CD with Mozart and Shostakovich piano concertos was produced and released in 2019 in St. Petersburg, as a special prize for winning the Golden Nutcracker.
He has rich piano repertoire for his age, intensively plays chamber music, including several times with Sofia Philharmonic concertmasters (Philharmonica String Quartet), also plays viola, and has many own compositions.