site.btaJazz Prima Yildiz Ibrahimova: Music and Child's Innocence Make Me Smile, Greed Saddens Me

Music and a child's innocence make me smile; what saddens me is the greed of humankind, jazz prima Yildiz Ibrahimova told BTA in the Bulgarian southern town of Yambol. "We are only here on this planet for a while," she said.

She was in the BTA National Press Club here to promote a concert on June 11 with the local chamber orchestra Dianopolis under the baton of Gancho Ganchev with concertmaster Krassimira Sultanova. The programme of the concert will include popular works by George Gershwin, Georges Bizet, Johann Sebastian Bach, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Kirill Lambov.

It is on the programme of events celebrating Yambol's Day on June 5, which started in late May.

 Maestro Ganchev said: "The audience will hear beautiful music and a rich voice. Every time I work with Yildiz Ibrahimova, I am amazed by her professionalism and the richness of her voice, the colourful picture that she paints with it. When I work with Yildiz, it feels like working with an instrument - not a human voice."

Violinist Krassimira Sultanova said it has long been her dream to play for Ibrahimova. "I was first captivated by a concert that she had with Maestro Gancho Ganchev and the Varna Chamber Orchestra over 12 years ago," she said.

Yambol has long traditions in jazz. In 1974 it held the first Bulgarian jazz festival in Bulgaria and its 50th anniversary will be marked in 2024.

This year's edition is organized by photographer Konstantin Zaykov, who is the son of the late artist and festival founder Georgi Zaykov. The Bulgarian-born Turkish jazz singer is coming for the June 11 event at Zaykov's invitation.