Tosheff & Stoyanova started playing professionally as a duo in 1997. Recognized as ...brilliant, talented concert artists..., they possess ...captivating stage presence...fascinating temperament, charm and spontaneity that grab the audience... They have won numerous honors and awards at prestigious international competitions and festivals.
Their career already includes performances in Japan, the U.S.A., Germany, The Netherlands, Malta, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria and Switzerland. Tosheff & Stoyanova have been invited as guest artists to the Valentino Bucchi Festival in Malta, the Sofia Music Weeks Festival at Bulgaria Hall, one of the most prestigious concert halls in the Balkan States, the Apolonia Easter Festival and the Pianissimo Festival of 20th century piano music in Sofia, and the Peter The Great Festival in The Netherlands.
Born in Bulgaria, Ilia Tosheff and Vely Stoyanova graduated from the State Academy of Music in Sofia, with a Bachelor's degree on a scholarship of the Open Society Foundation under Stella Dimitrova-Maistorova, Teodora Nestorova and chamber music Jenny Zacharieva. In 1997, they were invited to specialize under Madame Janine Reding, of the famous Reding and Piette Piano Duo, who are the first performers of the two piano concertos by Bartok, Martinu and Poulenc.
In 1999 they were one of the first duos admitted in the newly designed, specialized Piano Duo Performance program at the Hochschule fuer Musik in Hannover (Germany), which is one of the finest piano schools in Europe. Twice recipients of a German Government Scholarship from the DAAD, the duo worked with Bernd Goetzke (one of the last pupils of the great pianist Arturo B. Michelangeli), in the concert soloist program "Soloklasse", which is the highest level of graduate studies available in Germany. Presently, they are studying with the world renowned pianist John Perry at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, which was the only U.S. institution to admit them as a duo to their graduate studies program. In 2002, Tosheff and Stoyanova were honored to be the first piano-duo team admitted officially in a higher music institution in North America.