Entcho Radoukanov

Double bass player. I was born in 1946 in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria. At the age of 7 I started playing the violin and continued to do so until my admission to the Dobri Hristov school of music in Varna in 1960. It was there that I started playing the double bass. The following years were intensive, making it possible for me to win the first prize for double bass in the 1964 National Contest for Children and Youths. Later in that year I also gave my fist solo concert with piano in Varna. In the Autumn of 1967 I was admitted to the Musical Conservatory in Sofia in the class of professor Todor Toshev. This was perhaps one of the most productive periods of my life as a bassist and a musician, filled with successes such as: First prize of the National Contest for Singers and Instrumentalists, May 1969 Second prize in the well known international contest in Geneva, Switzerland, September 1969 (first prize was not given to any of the double bass contestants). I continued to take part in musical contests even after my graduation and won the third prize in the international contest for double bass on the Isle of Man in 1978. During that time I also gave numerous concerts with piano and orchestra, participated in several television programmes and made many recordings for Bulgarian Radio. I was a guest soloist of orchestras in Czechoslovakia and in Germany as well. In the Autumn of 1981, I became the Principal Double Bass Player of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra where I stayed until my retirement in 2012. I have given many solo concerts as well as participations with piano and with orchestra in Sweden. I have also recorded a number of pieces for Swedish Radio; for double bass and piano, as well as for double bass and orchestra. During 1988 I recorded my first compact disc with pieces for double bass and piano (Bluebell ABCD 018), in 1996 my second CD with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra (Bluebell ABCD 067) and in 1999 my third CD (Bluebell ABCD 081), which contains mostly my transcriptions of pieces for other instruments, an unusual and interesting disc.