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Vasko Vassilev – ‘The King’s Concertmaster’

Posted on: 18 May 2025

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I had the pleasure of interviewing Vasko Vassilev at the Royal Opera House in London. We have worked together (off and on) for the Royal Ballet and Royal Opera for ten years. It was a bit of a chaotic day – The interview was scheduled to take place at Vasko’s home, but when I arrived he was overrunning a rehearsal because of software problems. We decided to do the interview in his dressing room at the Opera House instead. This was fine as it gave me the chance to see The Cellist, a amazing ballet, choreographed by Cathy Marston, with the scenario devised by Marston and Edward Kemp. I also had a chance to listen to Vasko’s new project which fuses Bulgarian voices with flamenco and contemporary classical arrangements.

Following the interview, we had a jam on Austurias by Isaac Albeniz:

I got to know Vasko quite well when we played on a show together called ‘Triopera’ which he co-created with Pamela Tan-Nicholson. The show was a mixture of operatic classics and a visual ad acrobatic show (think Royal Opera meets Cirque du Soleil!)

Following the London run of this show, Vasko invited me to tour with him in Bulgaria. The tour covered fifteen cities and it is in Stara Zagora that we arrannged our version of Rondo Capriccioso by Saint-Saëns that Vasko mentions in the interview:

And here is a video of Fuzjko Hemming, who Vasko mentions in the interview. Vasko has toured Japan with her many times. It’s funny how we were speaking about television talent shows requiring artists to have a ‘story’ and then we moved on to talk about Hemming, who has one of the most amazing backstories:

And here is the ‘Pas de Trois’ from the ballet ‘The Cellist’ performed by Lauren Cuthbertson, Matthew Ball and Marcelino Sambé, and of course the Royal Ballet Orchestra. Jacqueline du Pré life was regarded as one of the most distinguished cellists of her time but suffered from multiple sclerosis and tragically died at the young age of 42. The Cellist is lyrical memoir of her story, told through dance.

Finally, it wasn’t so clear from the interview, but the performance that Vasko was giving the evening of the interview was actually a double-bill with the first piece being Anemoi, and the second piece being ‘The Cellist’. Anemoi is a short ballet – approximately 25 minutes ad is set to some beautiful music by Rachmaninov: