About George
Born in a family of professional musicians George first began studying piano at the age of 6 and percussion at 8 with Dobri Paliev and graduated from the State Music Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1995. In 1998 he earned his Masters of Music at Ithaca College, NY, with Gordon Stout and was awarded Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Oklahoma in 2004 where he studied with Richard Gipson.
His dissertation ASYMMETRICAL RHYTHMS FOR MARIMBA was published in November 2008 by VDM.
He studied conducting with William Wakefield and composition with Bentsion Eliezer and Gregory Woodward. His compositions have been performed at numerous concerts, competitions, meetings and have been favorably reviewed in magazines. His latest commission was a Concerto for Maracas and eight percussionists written for maracas virtuoso Ed Harrison.
George is a former member of Teatro Lirico D'Europa, State Musical Theater in Sofia and the Bulgarian national percussion ensemble Polyrhythmia and has participated in numerous recordings, live TV and radio broadcasts, festivals and concert performances in Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Austria, Hungary, Luxembourg, Serbia, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, France, Spain, Portugal, Monaco, Belgium, USA and has received several music honors and awards. Most recently he performed as timpanist and percussionist in the critically acclaimed 2015 production of Carousel at the Lyric Opera in Chicago.
Since 2010 he has been performing and conducting various orchestras in Chicago and the North Shore. Most currently George performs and conducts his Chicago Soloist Orchestra, featuring soloists and singers in one of a kind entertaining show program of pop, ragtime, world, and classical standards in the style of Andre Rieu with percussion in the forefront. His humorous but true comments about musicians keep the audience highly entertained at each concert.
Since 2005 George serves as Director of the Northfield School of Music serving Chicago and the North Shore offering quality music instruction:Drum lessons, Guitar lessons, Piano lessons, Violin lessons, and all band and orchestra instruments. He resides with his wife Dessislava - violist and their two sons Boyan and George - also musicians in Chicago's North Shore