Alexander Somov was born in Sofia and studied at the National Music School with Stefan Rounevsky. He continued his studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, where in 1998 he won the Gold Medal, a prize previously awarded to Jacqueline du Pre. Since then, Somov has performed concertos spanning from Baroque to contemporary music with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and Bulgarian National Radio Symphony, conducted by Thomas Zehetmair, Paul McCreesh, Thierry Fischer, David Parry, Marc Albrecht, Lionel Bringuier, Sir James MacMillan, Emil Tabakov and Georgi Dimitrov, among many others. As chamber musician Somov has travelled across Europe, Israel, Japan and Mexico with partners including Thomas Zehetmair, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Yuri Bashmet, Tasmin Little, Bartek Nizioł, Mari Kobayashi and John York. Since 2003, he has been guest-principal cellist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and SWR Baden-Stuttgart, among others.
