site.btaPianist Monk Abel to Give Concerts in Sofia, Varna in 2025

Monk Abel will be back in Bulgaria with a new programme in January 2025, organizers GOST said. He will play classical and contemporary masterpieces from Bach to Piazzolla in Sofia on January 13 after a concert in Varna (on the Black Sea) on January 10.

This last March, the pianist gave concerts entitled The Soul Knows in the largest hall of the NDK convention centre in the capital and in Varna.

"I do a program which evokes many different feelings and memories in a person. Also, I try to play with all my heart. Everything that is inside me and in my soul resonates in people's hearts," says Monk Abel.

In secondary school, Monk Abel was a mathematician and a pianist. After graduating from the St Petersburg State Conservatory, he devoted himself to God. He spent seven years at Docheiariou monastery in Mt Athos, during five of which he was also a construction worker at a new monastery in Sochos (Greece). Monk Abel then lived in Russia's medieval Valaam monastery, where he became an active concert pianist. His mission as a monk-musician is to glorify God and instil love in human hearts because the soul knows, but wants to learn more.