Twice a laureate at the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition, the violinist died aged 75
The Bulgarian violinist Petar Deltchev, who twice reached the finals of the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition in Genoa, Italy, died on 24 October 2025. He was 75.
Deltchev was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 28 December 1949. He received his musical training in Bulgaria, studying at the Sofia Music School with Konstantin Zidarov and the Music Academy in Sofia with Vladimir Avramov and Georgi Badev.
He enjoyed competition success, winning the Kocian Violin Competition in Czechoslovakia at the age of 14. He received two laureate awards at the Premio Paganini – the first of which he received in 1967 aged 17, when he received special permission to compete under the regulation age of 18 – while the second of which he received a year later in 1968.
He performed as a soloist in Bulgaria under the directorship of Bulgarian conductors including Dobrin Petkov, Konstantin Iliev, Vasil Kazandzhiev and Emil Chakarov. Some of his early recordings have been preserved, as well as his album The Weeping Violin, produced in 2003 by Bulgarian National Radio, recorded with pianist Mario Angelov.
In a 2018 interview, Angelov recalled his collaboration with Deltchev, saying ’He never seemed to touch the strings of the violin. He plays with such incredible ease, with elegance and intonational precision.
’I never saw him again, I had almost forgotten about the disc, but now the elegance and beauty so typical of his performances are coming back to me. His achievements should not be forgotten, he deserves much greater recognition.’
He moved to Germany, where he played with the Cologne Radio Orchestra until illness forced him to give up the violin in 2004. He lived in Italy in recent years with his wife and family, and died surrounded by his closest family.
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