Konstantyn Napolov (Ukraine/Netherlands)
Graduated with Bachelor degree in 2013 and cum laude Master diploma in 2015 from the percussion department of The Royal Conservatory of The Hague. His mentors and teachers were: Fedor Teunisse, Luuk Nagtegaal, Marinus Komst and Wim Vos. Foregoing he has succeeded in getting his Bachelor and Master of Percussion and Conducting at the National Music Academy in Kiev (Ukraine).
With his Percussion-Trio 'Davai Perkusion' Konstantyn won the first prize during the Grachtenfestival Concours at The Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam. Twice they ended up as finalists of the Kamermuziek Concours Almere, IPC Luxembourg, and won the first prize at 'Oh,Oh Intro' – popfestival The Hague, etc…
During his first year of Master he was accepted to do Erasmus-study at the conservatory with the oldest percussion traditions – Cité de la Musique et de la Danse Conservatoire de Strasbourg-, educated by Emmanuel Séjourné, Denis Riedinger and Stephan Fougeroux. Beside it he participated in several masterclasses by well-known percussionists like Peter Sadlo, Mark Pekarski, Christian Dierstein, Paul Mootz, Marta Klimasara, Robyn Schulkowsky, Nancy Zaltsman and many others.
Konstantyn is a great promoter of the contemporary percussion pieces, and up till now he premiered more than 10 new works. He had a privilege to work personally on solo and chamber music repertoire with Kaija Saariaho, Martijn Padding, Unsuk Chin, John Luther Adams, Philippe Manoury. Together with Steve Reich they worked on numerous of his pieces, and as a result Konstantyn performed his master work "Music for 18 musicians" at the stadium with more than 5000 in public during the “Lowlands festival 2013”.
He is an accomplished soloist who won several prizes and took part in prestigious world-wide renowned competitions, such as: ARD Musikwettbewerb München, Tromp IMC Eindhoven, Dutch Classical Talent and the Grachtenfestival Concours. In March 2015 won two 1st Prizes at the International Music competition in Belgrade Serbia, as a soloist and with own Duo Delonix, and in 2016 he won the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds prijs 15.000€ . Within the NJO Konstantyn went from playing Tam-Tam part in Shostakovich's 11th symphony to receiving the title of " Young Artist in Residence". In the same year he was nominated by the prestigious international festival for "Grachtenfestivalprijs" and "Artist in Residence Grachtenfestival Amsterdam".
One of the outstanding moments of his career was the opportunity to perform with the renowned show-percussion group Percossa for The Dutch ministry and The Dutch Royal family.
During the summer of 2015 Konstantyn received an invitation to participate in the masterclasses at the well-known 'Chosen Vale' in America, for which he was granted the prestigious Colin Currie scholarship and masterclasses at New York's ' The Juilliard School ' and Boston Conservatory. By the winter of 2016 Konstantyn won the principal position at "The World Percussion Group 2016" directed by famous English percussion duo "Maraca2" which included more than 2 month tour through USA. As a result he was invited to give masterclasses and perform in Mexico.
Since 2014 Konstantyn Napolov is Haupt-Pauker (principal-percussionist) at Mannheimer Philharmoniker (Germany).
Konstantyn is officially ‘Adams’, ‘Zildjian’ and ‘Mike Balter Mallets’ artist.