“We have prepared many pleasant surprises for our fans in the coming months”, Conductor of the Folk Music Orchestra of the Bulgarian National Radio Dimitar Hristov contends. The first one is to be held on February 25 at the BNR concert studio. The program is entitled The Art of Concertmasters.

“The Project named The Art of the Concertmasters is in two parts. You can expect its second part at the end of September 2015”, conductor Hristov went on to say. “Our idea is to present the concertmasters of all fourteen Bulgarian folklore ensembles. We have invited seven soloists. Here are some of the names: Dimitar Todorov - bagpiper from Philip Koutev folklore ensemble, Iliya Ganev from Pirin ensemble, Todor Dukov from Smolyan ensemble and others. The ensemble art is very specific. Usually the dance and song formations are on the foreground and the orchestra stays behind. That is why we decided to present these wonderful instrumentalists. The orchestra is to present its latest pieces. This concert will be full of smiles and various styles. We invited for our music show on March 19 renowned Bulgarian shepherd flutist Theodosii Spassov, clarinetist Mladen Malakov and accordionist Petar Ralchev. It is always a pleasure to play alongside such remarkable musicians. Here I would like to point out that wedding music is a special genre. It gives a lot to musicians, especially in the beginning of their career. Most renowned musicians went through the “wedding music school” and today perform on many world stages. I think The Rhythm of the Balkans concert will bring us many positive emotions. Musicians from Macedonia, Serbia, Greece and Turkey will again attend this event. Art unites people much better than politicians. I and my colleagues view this as a cause. We believe that similar music events in the Balkans must happen more often.”

The audience is to enjoy on February 25 performances of Nikolay Paskalev from Trakia Ensemble, Darinka Tsekova from the Northern Ensemble, Jivko Jeleff from Dobrudja Ensemble, Stancho Dimitrov from Kapanski Ensemble and Todor Gluhov from the Rhodopa Smolyan Folklore Ensemble.

Dimitar Hristov was famous in his first years on stage as a mandolin virtuoso. Before he took over the BNR Folk Music Orchestra he went through several folklore ensembles. Meanwhile, he was part of Bulgara and Diva Reka (Wild River) ethno formations and he still works with them.

“I am a musician by nature and music is all around me. My family also works in the music field. I work what I like the most. My colleagues are great professionals and we can do anything together. I continue to play with the ethno groups. We made a new album with Bulgara and we are to release another one in the future, too. We have collected a lot of music material and we only have to put the pieces together. The other ethno formation Diva Reka is also very popular and receives a series of invitations. We held wonderful concerts in Prague and Warsaw and we are currently working on a new CD."

One of the most interesting events in my professional career is the so-called Moscow experience. It was a real experience, because we all know about Russia’s cultural achievements and that all music genres are full with professionals. I performed as a soloist at their Osipov National Folk Instruments Orchestra for the first time in 2010. Later I received a series of invitations. I managed to go under qualification courses in the classes of two renowned conductors- Vladimir Ponkin who works in the field of the symphonic opera music and Maxim Evtushenko who is an expert in the folklore music field. These men charged me with a lot of energy. I am the only Bulgarian who wrote music for Igor Moiseyev National Russian Ballet. My pieces named Serbian Dance and Macedonian Dance entered all of their music programs and the formation presents them in all parts of the globe. I continue to cooperate with the Russian State Academic Concert Orchestra Boyan and I wrote a whole music programme for this formation. My pieces written for this orchestra will in fact present the Balkan music.”

English version: Kostadin Atanasov

The audio file contains the following pieces:

-1:  Balkan Games, to the rendition of the BNR Folk Music Orchestra

-2: Stakato, performed by the BNR Folk Music Orchestra

-3: Lapad, to the rendition of Bulgara ethno formation

 -4- Nayden became famous, performed by Diva Reka (Wild River) ethno formation