Vesselin Gellev

Bulgarian-born violinist Vesselin Gellev has been Sub-Leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra since 2007.

Praised by The New York Times for his ‘warmth and virtuosic brilliance’, Vesselin has been a featured soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra and Juilliard Orchestra, among others. He won First Prize at the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York as a member of the Antares Quartet, and has recorded several albums and toured worldwide as Concertmaster of Kristjan Järvi’s Grammy-nominated Absolute Ensemble.

Prior to joining the LPO, Vesselin was Leader of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra in the USA and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Italy. He has performed as Guest Leader with numerous orchestras in the UK and abroad, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid at Teatro Real, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Vesselin received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, New York, as a student of Robert Mann. He has served on the violin and chamber music faculties of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and the Eleazar de Carvalho Music Festival in Fortaleza, Brazil.