"A concert with original music is a wonderful way for a person to celebrate his birthday," one of the most eminent and creative jazz musicians on the Bulgarian scene, percussionist Hristo Yotsov, says with a smile. For the third consecutive year, his personal celebration on February 17 will be accompanied by a gift for the audience – a concert with original music performed by the Pleven Philharmonic Orchestra. This year, Prof. Yotsov celebrates his 65th anniversary and in order for the event to be in unison with the holiday, the dates for the concert are two. The first is on Valentine's Day, February 14 – in the "Katya Popova" Hall in Pleven and the second is on February 17 – in the "Bulgaria" Hall in Sofia.

The program will once again take us to the border between classical and jazz, where emotions create stories, where Hristo Yotsov is a true virtuoso both as a musician and as a composer. The event will be conducted by maestro Borislav Yotsov, the composer's brother and a prominent clarinetist.

In addition to conducting, Borislav Yotsov will also be a soloist in the piece for clarinet and string orchestra "Scorpio" from the chamber jazz suite "Zodiac". A work that had its premiere at the end of 2024 and is inspired by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. Hristo Yotsov wrote it thinking about the zodiac signs of musicians close to him and his family. In the piece "Aquarius" from the same cycle, he worked together with his daughter Nadezhda Yotsova, a prominent classical pianist in Germany. In Pleven and Sofia, the concert for drums and orchestra will also be performed, with Maestro Yotsov himself as soloist. His "Concerto for Orchestra" will also have its premiere.

"It is in the focus of the event and is the reason for this concert program,” Prof. Hristo Yotsov tells us. “Concerto for Orchestra is a genre in music that composers, have not used very often. And for me this is an infinitely interesting musical exercise, because you have an instrument with infinite possibilities, which is the orchestra. In my case, the orchestra is expanded and instruments are included that are usually not present in the programs of symphony orchestras, such as alto flute, contrabassoon, clarinet, many percussion instruments. It is a three-part form with a duration of about 40 minutes, comparable in scale to a symphony. The most important thing for me is the movement, dynamics, color, emotion in music," Hristo Yotsov says.

And if you have already recognized jazz improvisation in the words of maestro Yotsov - then you seem to be completely right.

"Of course, the process of creating music is the same, only in jazz it happens in the moment on stage, while the other is improvisation in the head of the composer, who simply has to write it so that other people can read it. In fact, improvisation is something that over the years unlocked in my mind the possibility of this need to write symphonic music."

• Hristo Yotsov holds author’s concert in Pleven

An experience that for Hristo Yotsov began in the percussion classes of Prof. Dobri Paliev at the National Music School "Lyubomir Pipkov", went through playing as a soldier, and from 1982 to 1989 as part of the Big Band of the Bulgarian National Radio. For the last four decades he has played with various jazz groups in Bulgaria and Europe and together with Antoni Donchev and the "Acoustic Version" formation won the two most prestigious European jazz awards - Jazz Hoeilaart in Belgium in 1985 and the European Jazz Competition in Germany in 1986.

Since 1989, Prof. Hristo Yotsov has been teaching percussion instruments in the "Pop and Jazz Art" department at the National Music Academy "Prof. Pancho Vladigerov". Together with his brother Borislav and singer and percussionist Hilda Kazasyan, they are part of the musicians who have been building the jazz scene in Bulgaria for the past 30 years. They are the basis of some of the most significant music projects, tours and club performances in this country.

"Jazz has long ceased to be the kind of American music that it was in the 1930s and 1940s. It is a way of self-expression, not a style. It comes down to the fact that this is music in which improvisation is seriously present and the most important thing is the person who created it.

He says that to this day he is guided by the principles and attitude that he learned from his teacher, Prof. Dobri Paliev. "For all of us who have passed through his school, it is an event of enormous importance for our entire lives, for our entire careers. For all of us, he is something like a guru," the musician says. Support and individual attitude - this is what Prof. Paliev's graduates received. "I remember that he gave me my first big drum. It was a great happiness for me," Hristo Yotsov says.

A two-way communication, in which the boundary between teacher and musician is very important. Perhaps it is Hristo Yotsov's experience on both sides of the stage that is the basis of his "Concerto for Drum Set and Symphony Orchestra" - the third piece in the program of his anniversary concert with the Pleven Philharmonic.

"When I started teaching, I realized that there was no literature about this instrument. It is always treated as part of a group and is responsible for the rhythm. It is never a soloist, it is never in front, let alone in symphonic works in front of a symphony orchestra. And I said to myself – this is very interesting, let's try it! I wrote the piece (in 2015). It is absolutely improvisational, there are no notes for a person to learn and play. This is musical instruction. Anyone can do it, play it as dictated by their vision of music and stylistic features. I have performed the Concerto for Drum Set and Symphony Orchestra twice in Poland and five times in the USA, which is simply incredible."

Read also:

• “Accent” Ensemble – 25 years in the world of percussion instruments

Publication in English: Al. Markov

Photos: Personal archive Hristo Yotsov