Bass Professeur

Maria CHIROKOLIYSKA

CHIROKOLIYSKA Maria
Presentation

Introduced to music by her maternal grandfather — an amateur musician and painter — Maria began playing guitar at the age of four. At nine, she discovered the double bass with Dimitar Petrov and enrolled in the music school of her hometown Plovdiv (Bulgaria), where she also studied piano. She was awarded the “Z. Manolov” Prize for best student of her class, and in 1994, won First Prize at the National Young Talents Competition in Sofia.

In 1995, she continued her studies at the State Academy of Music “Pancho Vladigerov” in Sofia with N. Nikolov, where she received First Prize at the international competition “Svetoslav Obretenov”. A recipient of the Bulgarian “Otvoreno Obshtestvo” music scholarship in 1998, she was also awarded a DAAD scholarship (German Academic Exchange Service) for two consecutive years (1999 and 2000), enabling her to further her training in Germany.

In 1999, Maria was admitted to the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt, where she studied with Prof. G. Klaus. She earned her Master of Arts with distinction in 2004, while also attending masterclasses with David Walter, Thomas Martin, and Antonio Garcia Araque.

Her brilliant academic path led her to an exceptional musical career. Discovered in 1996 by the director of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival (Germany) during an audition in Bulgaria, she went on to perform worldwide and gained invaluable experience as an orchestral musician with the “Philharmonie der Nationen”.

Among the early highlights of her career, two awards stand out: a Special Prize at the 1st J.M. Sperger International Double Bass Competition in Woldzegarten (Germany) in 2000, and First Prize as well as the Special Prize for “Best Interpretation of a Contemporary Work” at the prestigious Giovanni Bottesini International Double Bass Competition in Crema (Italy) in 2003.

She has held positions with the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra (2001) and as associate principal double bass of the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra (2001–2008), before being appointed principal double bass of the Orchestre National de France in 2007. In parallel, she also served as principal double bass of “Les Dissonances” and “European Camerata” from 2008 to 2016.

Over the years, Maria has performed under the baton of leading conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Daniele Gatti, Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Colin Davis, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Semyon Bychkov, Christoph Eschenbach, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andris Nelsons, and Emmanuel Krivine — and alongside renowned soloists such as Martha Argerich, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Alexandre Kantorow, Joshua Bell, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Renée Fleming, and Janine Jansen.

She also appears regularly at major chamber music festivals (Prades, Festival de l’Emperi, Penderecki Festival, Clos Vougeot…) performing with the Prazak Quartet, Modigliani Quartet, Moragues Quintet, Ardeo Quartet, Storioni Trio, and artists such as Renaud Capuçon, Elmira Darvarova, Emmanuel Pahud, Adam Laloum, Marc Jude, Natalie Dessay, Ophélie Gaillard, Frank Braley, Daishin Kashimoto, and Paul Meyer.

As a soloist, she has notably performed Nino Rota’s Concerto for Double Bass with the Orchestre National de France under the direction of Gustavo Gimeno.

Her discography includes the world premiere of Lazar Nikolov’s Trio for Piano, Cello and Double Bass (2002), Isang Yun’s Oktett for string quintet, clarinet, horn and bassoon (2011), and Mozart’s Gran Partita with soloists of the Monte Carlo Philharmonic (2022).

Maria is deeply committed to education, driven by her desire to pass on her rich experience to the next generation of musicians. Since 2017, she has taught double bass at the École Normale de Musique de Paris. She also gives masterclasses across Europe and Asia, including recent appearances in 2022 at MUK Wien (Austria), HfM Hanns Eisler Berlin (Germany), the National Academy of Music in Sofia (Bulgaria), and upcoming sessions in 2025 at Kookmin University (South Korea).

She has been invited by Maestro Riccardo Muti since 2013 to serve on the selection jury for the “Luigi Cherubini” Youth Orchestra. In September 2016, she sat on the double bass jury of the prestigious ARD International Music Competition in Munich, and in 2019, joined the Bottesini Competition jury, where she also gave a recital.

Since 2007, Maria has been principal double bass of the Orchestre National de France. She plays a double bass crafted by John Frederick Lott in the United Kingdom in 1830.