Casa dei Mezzo Music Festival, Makrigialos, Crete

Marko Pop Ristov

Marko Pop Ristov

Marko was born in 1984 in Skopje F.Y.R.O.M. (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). He started playing the violin at the age of nine with Professor H. Trajanovska and later with Professor S. Badivuku Hoxa with whom he finished his education at the State Musical High School in Bitola, Macedonia.

In 2001 Marko was awarded a full scholarship for his studies at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in the class of Professor Pavel Vernikov. He is currently scholar at Royal College of Music in London where he will graduate in July 2009.

Marko has won many international prizes: 2nd prize at the International Competition "Kornelia Bronzeti", Romania; 1st prize at the International Competition "Petar Konjovic", Yugoslavia; Absolute Winner (all age-categories and all instruments) at the International Competition "Giovanni Batista Pergolesi", Naples, Italy and, most recently, 1st prize (all instruments) at the "Performing Australian Music Competition" in London, UK.

Marko has performed as a soloist with The Chamber Orchestra of Bitola and the National Symphony Orchetra of Macedonia; Orchestra dei Ragazzi and Kensington Sinfonia. He has also performed in many European countries: Belgium, Greece, France, Italy, Macedonia, Norway, Romania, Serbia and the UK.