Emile Naoumoff was born in Sofia in 1962, and at the age of eight was taken on by Nadia Boulanger, who taught this distinguished pupil for the last ten years of her life. At the age of nineteen Naoumoff took diplomas in piano, composition and conducting, and was made Professor of the American Conservatoire and then the Paris Conservatoire.

Emile Naoumoff's career as a soloist took off when without any rehearsal, he accepted an invitation to replace an indisposed pianist in a performance of Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto in Monte Carlo, conducted by Yuri Ahronovitch. A critic at the concert wrote that "he has the poetry of Rubinstein and the fire of Horowitz".

He is regularly invited by the world's premier orchestras: the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, National Symphony in Washington, NHK Symphony, Residency Orchestra of the Hague, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Camerata of Bern, working with Uri Segal, Alain Lombard, Mstislav Rostropovich and Eliahu Inbal.

Naoumoff has also given recitals in Chicago, Baltimore and the Marlboro Festival, at Rudolf Serkin's personal invitation. In Europe he has given recitals in Cologne, Munich, Bern, Venice, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Paris and Vienna - and was subsequently re-invited by all.

In 1981 the famous publisher Schott de Mayence took on the representation of Emile Naoumoff, the youngest composer represented by Schott. He has played his own second concerto with the Monterey Orchestra and in 1994 he gave the world premiere of his arrangement for piano and orchestra of "Pictures of an Exhibition" with Rostropovich in Washington.

As well his responsibility at the Paris Conservatoire, Emile Naoumoff has given masterclasses at the Berkeley and Stanford Association and at the American Conservatoire in Fontainebleau.

Emile Naoumoff has already made six records, including for Orfeo and EMI.