Cello Velitchka

🎻 Velitchka Yotcheva, one of Canada’s most gifted young cellists, enjoys a brilliant career as a soloist with various orchestras in Europe, Russia, South America, and Canada. She also performs as a chamber musician to great acclaim throughout Canada, as well as Russia, Bulgaria, France, and the United States. Velitchka Yotcheva was trained in the Russian School of Cello Playing, as represented by Mstislav Rostropovich and Simeon Kozolupov. Born in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, she started her musical studies at the age of five with Professor Tacho Tachev. At 18, she left for Moscow to attend the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where she studied with Marina Tchaikovskaya (former student and assistant to Rostropovich) and later worked under the direction of Valentin Feigin. She also studied chamber music with Alexander Korchagin (a member of the Shostakovich Quartet). In 1992, she obtained her Master of Fine Arts degree from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Moscow.