Zornitsa Ilarionova studied with the world-renowned professor Zakhar Bron at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia, Madrid and with the prominent international violinist Mario Hossen at New Bulgarian University, as well as at “Santa Cecilia” Music Academy in Bergamo, Italy under Professor Pavel Vernikov.
She has numerous prizes in many national and international violin competitions, including “Pancho Vladigerov”, “Young Virtuosos”, ”Kanetti” (Antaliya, Turkey), First International Violin Competition “Varna” 2015 and many others. She has performed in numerous international music festivals in Europe and working with musicians as Pavel Vernikov, Boris Garlitsky, Igor Petrushevsky, Midori, Ivry Gitlis, Michael Frischenschlager, Gerard Poulet, Donald Weilerstein, Oleg Krysa, Latica Honda-Rosenberg, Svetlin Roussev, Vadim Gluzman, Yuri Volgin and many others.
Zornitsa was awarded by Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria for high achievements in the art of violin playing. She is a laureate of the competition, organized by “Yordan Kamdzhalov” Foundation.
In 2014 she received from her Majesty Queen Sofia in Royal Palace of El Pardo in Madrid, Spain the award “The best violinist in the violin class of Zakhar Bron”. In September 2015 she was a finalist at 13th International violin competition “Henryk Wieniawski” in Poland. Zornitsa is a “Young Performer of 2015” of the prestigious Bulgarian award “Cristal Lyre”. Her recent achievements include:
▪ “Grand Prix” and the special award of Radio France concerts during 2017/2018 concert season at XXV International Music Competition “Music and Earth” – Sofia, Bulgaria.
▪ becoming one of the 8 semifinalists at Windsor International String Competition in Windsor, UK.
▪ 3rd prize at the International Music competition “Rising Stars” – Berlin, Germany.
▪ 2nd prize-winner at the International Violin Competition “Suna Kan” – Ankara, Turkey.
▪ 1st prize and also the Special prize of Thomastic Infeld at the International Music Competition “E-Muse”, Greece.
▪ 1st prize winner at the International Music Competition “Rising Stars of Europe” in London, UK.
▪ In November 2017 Zornitsa Ilarionova successfully makes her debut in Radio France, playing for the emission France Musique.
▪ 2nd prize winner at 3th International Manhattan Music Competition in New York, 2018.
▪ Classic Pure Vienna International Music Competition 2018 – Vienna, Austria – 3rd Prize
Johann Sebastian Bach International Competition 2018 – Fukuoka, Japan – First prize and also First prize for best performance of pieces by Claude Debussy.