We are deeply saddened to announce the death on May 18, 2018 of Katia Popov, leader of the California String Quartet, our 2016-2017 Artists in Residence. More info at these links:
http://katiapopov.com/ ; and https://www.laco.org/remembering-katia-popov/
Violinist Katia Popov is Concertmaster of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, a member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and a principal second violin in the Long Beach Symphony. She was a Concertmaster of the Sofia Chamber Orchestra, as well as of the Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra and the First Concertmaster of the European Symphonic Orchestra based in Paris. Katia is on the faculty of the Cal State University of Long Beach, Cole Conservatory.
Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Ms. Popov started to play the violin when she was only four years old. She could read music long before she learned the alphabet. While at school she was considered a child prodigy and went on to receive the highest awards for her performances.
She is a First Prize Winner of the International Competition “Svetoslav Obretenov,” the International Violin Competition “Kozian” and the International Competition for Russian Music. Ms. Popov graduated from the Bulgarian Conservatory of Music with honors and received her Masters of Performance degree. She went on to continue her studies in the Paris Conservatory under Professor Nell Goutkovsky. She holds a Master’s degree and has concluded her doctoral studies at UCLA, studying with Alexander Treger.
Ms. Popov participated in solo and chamber music master classes with Tibor Varga, Vladimir Spivakov, Nell Gutovsky, Alexander Treger and Iona Brown, and has taken part in many music festivals, including the Oregon Bach Festival, Salzburg Festival with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Samedan in Switzerland and the Brahms Music Festival in France. In addition to her concerts being broadcast in Los Angeles, she has been heard on the Bulgarian and Czech national radios and on television including France’s Canal Plus. Ms. Popov has performed numerous times with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen, Simon Rattle, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman and Zubin Mehta.
Ms. Popov is also a frequent guest soloist of orchestras in Southern California. Her performances as a soloist and a concertmaster of the European Symphonic Orchestra and the Sofia Chamber Orchestra have taken her around the world, including Austria where she has performed as a concertmaster at the Vienna Staatsoper. She has recorded more than 600 motion picture scores with composers such as John Williams, Alan Silvestri, David Newman, James Horner, Hans Zimmer and Thomas Newman, James Newton Howard and Randy Newman; for Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion and the final album of Frank Sinatra; and for John Williams’ cello concerto featuring Yo-Yo Ma. In addition, she has performed with Plácido Domingo, Sir James Galway, Joshua Bell, Beck, Chicago, Andrea Bocelli, Earth Wind and Fire and Gloria Estefan, among others.
An avid chamber music performer, Ms. Popov is a founder and first violinist of the award-winning California String Quartet. She is also a music director of Musical Sunday Afternoons, popular chamber music series at the First Christian Church in Studio City.
Ms. Popov is an official endorser of the famous Thomastic Infeld “Vision Solo” violin strings from Vienna and the voice of the classical radio station K-Mozart.