The virtuoso violinist Albena Danailova is the first female concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's concert, which is broadcast live worldwide.
"On one of the last evenings at the Vienna State Opera, violinist Albena Danailova's strong and melodious tone overshadowed the melodies of the character Rodolfo in Puccini's signature aria from La Bohème. Between numbers, she casually interacted with her fellow orchestra members before tilting her bow and to direct the ensemble.
It was just another regular night. Except that the 48-year-old Mrs. Danailova is the first female concertmaster in the history of the Vienna Philharmonic," writes the New York Times newspaper in its article, which pays special attention to the talent of the Bulgarian woman.
The director of the Vienna Philharmonic, Daniel Froschauer, points out her ability to express emotions in just a few notes: "Her vibrato is very intense and is perfectly suited to opera. Often the short solos are the most difficult because you have very little time to capture the mood ." Froschauer adds that Danailova is not resting on her laurels. He specifically praised the quality of her sound. "That's the main thing for a concertmaster," he says. "Everything else can be learned."
Danailova became the first female concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic in 2011 - three years after starting as a performer in the orchestra of the State Opera. Danailova maintains a busy schedule that includes chamber music and upcoming concerts conducted by Kiril Petrenko and Herbert Blomstedt.
The Vienna Philharmonic first featured female musicians in 1997, and since then the Philharmonic has regularly added women to its roster (violinist Lara Kustrich and clarinetist Andrea Goetsch are the most recent hires). Currently, 24 of the orchestra's 145 members are women. In the orchestra's academy, women occupy 8 out of 13 seats. Most orchestras in Europe and beyond have not yet achieved full gender equality, notes the New York Times. A survey of 129 publicly funded orchestras by the German Music Information Center in March 2021 shows that only 21.9% of concertmaster positions in Germany are held by women and that female performers account for less than 40% of the positions overall. In the United States, the ratio is higher at about 47%. That's according to a report this year by the League of American Orchestras that examines the period from 2014 to 2023.
In 2023, Albena Danailova had a solo concert in the "Bulgaria" hall with the Varna Philharmonic, when she performed works by Bulgarian composers.
The Bulgarian virtuoso violinist began her violin studies as a child in Sofia, Bulgaria, where there is a strong tradition of training soloists but less infrastructure for orchestral life. "I learned a very flexible, open way of playing in my country, so that through it I can integrate different styles," Danailova told The New York Times. "But I never played in an orchestra because I was too young, and Bulgaria doesn't have such a tradition as in Germany or Austria."
Danailova has lived in Vienna since 2008, having previously played in the orchestra of the Bavarian Opera in Munich and gradually worked her way up from second violin to first violin and then to concertmaster. Since 2008, she has been a member of the staff of the Vienna Philharmonic, and since 2011, she has been one of the four permanent concertmasters, the first time in the orchestra's history that this post has been held by a woman./BGNES
