Vasko Vassilev was born in Sofia in 1970. By eight, he was already a star prodigy violinist and the star actor in an international awardwinning film. In his teens, he won top prizes in three major international violin competitions (Jacques Thibault; Carl Flesch and Paganini) and embarked on a worldwide solo performing career. Since becoming the youngest and first ever concertmaster at the Royal Opera House, (where his ceiling height photograph by Mario Testino adorns the reception) Vasko has continued to widen his artistic horizons. Aside from the classical arena, he has also enjoyed artistic collaborations in various capacities, not limited to violinplaying, with many musical names from other sectors such as Vanessa-Mae, Ronnie Wood, Sting, Paco Pena, Erasure, to name but a few.

He is Artistic Director/Leader of Laureate an instrumental group made up exclusively of international prizewinning instrumentalists. With Laureate, Vasko recorded the multiplatinum selling ‘Original Four Seasons’ with Vanessa-Mae (who was his student from the age of 11 onwards), ragtime, Paganini and a multi-genre project called Total Immersion which had its launch at the Royal Opera House. Vasko is the Principal Conductor of the Bulgarian National Radio Orchestra, with whom he has toured and recorded. He is also the Artistic Director of the Super-Girls Orchestra with whom he made his UK conducting debut at the Royal Albert Hall in a stunning showcase of classical set pieces and new works amalgamating styles and music of soloists from some 14 nations. Vasko has toured sell-out concerts with the Super Girls Orchestra in Eastern Europe and Spain. In 2004, Vasko ceased to be Artistic Director of the Soloists of the Royal Opera House and accepted a prestigious new appointment as Creative Producer of the Royal Opera House, in which capacity he will be introducing cross-cultural and multi-media projects into the different venues of the House. He has recently created and launched the ‘Letters and Music’ series, matching outstanding musicians in performance with celebrity actors reading famous letters. He is considering an offer to take this series on a worldwide tour. Vasko has also been offered the key role in a new Television concept, putting celebrities through their steps to learn a new musical discipline. Vasko lives in London and is fully conversant in Russian, Bulgarian and English.