The ppIANISSIMO Festival for contemporary piano music takes place in the period March 22 – April 7 and concerts are in the First Studio of the Bulgarian National Radio, the concert hall of "Prof. Pancho Vladigerov" National Academy of Music and the National School of Music and Dance Art "Dobrin Petkov" in Plovdiv. Borislava Taneva, head of the festival, presents the program:

"We open the festival with a concert by an extremely interesting pianist from Malta – Tricia Dawn Williams. She will be presenting works written especially for her that are performed in a unique way on extended piano. Tricia uses special bracelets on her hands and electrodes activated by the movement of the muscles of her hands. This technique produces sound with almost no direct touch to the keyboard. On March 23, young Greek pianist Konstantinos Destounis, who is highly devoted to modern music, will have his concert. Sofya Melikyan will also be having a solo concert. ppIANISSIMO continues on March 29 with a concert by Kotaro Fukuma from Japan, who will also perform specially created works by Somei Satoh and Albena Vratchanska. The program includes a performance of vocal ensemble Cantanti Dai Monti Verdi, headed by Severin Vassilev. This concert will be presented on the next day in Plovdiv, as it is part of the official program of Plovdiv – European Capital of Culture 2019. Then comes “Bulgarian Readings of the Sonata” – a solo piano recital by Margarita Ilieva. She will be performing sonatas by Bulgarian composers, some of which are dedicated to her. The concert of Stefka Perifanova (Bulgaria/Switzerland) is on March 31.”

"During the last 'extended' weekend of the festival on April 5, the duo of German flutist Kersten McCall and Bulgarian Kamelia Miladinova – piano perform. Always interesting and challenging in their performances, according to Prof. Taneva, they are among the regular performers at ppIANISSIMO. The duo has included works by Georgi Arnaudov, Pierre Boulez, Bach and others. Lecturers and PhD students from the National Academy of Music will take part in the concert, which is a continuation of the 'Composer Portraits' series (April 6). The composer’s portrait presented will be that of Stephen Gardner from Ireland. The concert would take place under the initiative and with the support of the Embassy of Ireland in Bulgaria."

ppIANISSIMO JAZZ: "Spontaneous improvisations" is another traditional concert part of the forum for contemporary music. On April 6 under this motto audience will be listening to jazz pianists Lyubo Tsanev and Konstantin Kostov (Bulgaria / Germany), who have prepared "original jazz plays, free improvisations and ... surprises".

"I want to thank Bulgarian National Radio, the Ministry of Culture, the Sofia Municipality, the Ministry of Culture, the Academy of Music, the Pro Helvetia Foundation, the Goethe Institute, and a number of embassies and companies that have made this edition possible", Prof. Taneva told us in conclusion.

English: Alexander Markov