Syon Najman

Biography

Born on June 9 2002 in Antwerp, Syon already at an early age started singing with the Bulgarian Collegium Hosanna, where he was trained by Elitza Hristova and composer Georgi Popov.

At the age of 6 he joined the cello class of Daniela Cherpokova at the Bulgarian National Music School Lyubomir Pipkov in Sofia. 

During his first competition at the age of 11 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria besides winning the first prize he was awarded with a special prize acclaiming his outstanding musical and artistic talent.

As a young musician he has worked with internationally renowned musicians and pedagogues such as Stefan Popov, Vladimir Perlin, Denis Severin, Kirill Rodin, Alexander Ramm, Dominique de Williencourt, Jérôme Pernoo, Michel Strauss, László Fenyö, Troels Svane, François Guye and Miklós Perényi.

In 2016 he joined the class of Romain Garioud at the conservatory in L’Haÿ-les-Roses, France where he was a student until 2019.

Over the years he has participated in many music academies and festivals in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Czech Republic and Bulgaria, both as a soloist and chamber musician.

After winning the first prize at the international Hopes, Talents and Masters competition in Dobrich, Bulgaria in 2016, his string quartet Codam was regularly invited to perform around Bulgaria. Other successes followed soon when Syon and his string quartet, as laureates of Concertino Praga 2018, performed in Prague and toured Southern Bohemia for numerous concerts in historical settings.

In the same year he won the second prize at the renowned International Karl Davidov Cello Competition in the birth town of the famous cellist and composer in Kuldiga, Latvia.

In 2019 Syon won the first prize at Concertino Praga 2019. In June that year he performed in the prestigious Dvorak Hall at the Prague Rudolfinum with the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra after which he joined all laureates on a tour in Czech Republic.

Supported by the EMCY Organization, Syon as a first prize winner of Concertino Praga 2019 was invited by Ensemble Modern to take part in their two week masterclass and European Epoche_f tour. 

In 2020 Syon was nominated by the Art Foundation Stoyan Kamberev for their annual art prize. As a scholar of the foundation he is inivited to perform in their musical projects, most recently for four concerts with the Pleven Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Yordan Kamdzhalov in February 2021. 

Since the autumn of 2020 Syon forms a duo with violonist Lora Markova. During the summer the duo was invited to festivals such as the Sofia Guitar Festival and Allegra Festival in Russe, Bulgaria and ISA in Austria. Besides winning the first prize at the Cantus Firmus Competition 2021 in Bulgaria, celebrated during a laureates concert in Zala Bulgaria, the ensemble as the winner of the Bohuslav Martinu Foundation award from the Concertino Praga 2021 Competition, performed at the Rudolfinum in Prague during the Dvorak Festival in September.

As a soloist, in 2021, Syon participated in festivals and academies such as the Allegra Festival and Cellissimo in Bulgaria, ISA in Austria and Chieti Classica in Italy. At the latter he performed at two unique recitals together with his sister Nauma Najman, both as a cello duo and as soloists.

Before heading to Berlin where he was accepted in the UdK cello class of Prof. Jens Peter Maintz earlier in the year, in October 2021 together with the Yordan Kamdzhalov Foundation and the Art Foundation Stoyan Kamberev Syon organized a warm farewell recital with pianist Veneta Neynska in Zala Bulgaria.