site.btaEuropean Music Festival Founder Dimitrov Pledges Support for More Young Musicians

"We are reconsidering the direction the European Music Festival (EMF) is taking, namely supporting more young musicians. We want to help their development so that they can bring joy to the public in Bulgaria and around the world with their achievements," said the Festival's founder and Executive Director of Cantus Firmus, Vasil Dimitrov, here on Thursday. 

"We, in the beginning, made great efforts to show the Bulgarian audience big names from the world stages. First we had Joshua Bell, Midori, Pinchas Zukerman and many others. Back then our audience was hungry for this kind of performances. Later we turned to Bulgarian musicians who live and work abroad. Now our main efforts are already dedicated to younger Bulgarian musicians," he said.

The programme of the 24th edition of EMF was presented here on Thursday at BTA, which is among the Festival's main media partners. "BTA is honoured to be the media partner of EMF for another year. It is important for us to support initiatives that contribute to musical and cultural diversity," said BTA Secretary General Julia Sokolova. 

According to Vasil Dimitrov, this year the Festival has two "clear directions". One is related to anniversaries - the 125th anniversady of the Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music and the 120th anniversary of Sofia's Lyubomir Pipkov National School of Music Sofia.

"The other direction is called by us world masters and this is a concert of the great pianist, Sergei Babayan, who will play in Bulgaria for the first time," Dimitrov announced. The April 29 event at Bulgaria Hall was introduced via video by conductor Boyan Videnov.

Another highlight of the programme is the guest appearance on 28 September of the Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra conducted by Radoslav Sculz. The soloist is Mario Hossen (violin).

Opera singer Gergana Nikolaeva talked about the Easter concert planned for April 19 in the auditorium of Sofia University. "This concert is very important for me because after so many years, for the first time I will be on the same stage with the children's radio choir. I can't wait for this meeting, because when I was a little girl I was part of the choir, and now I will sing with them as a soloist, together with my colleague Evgenia Ralcheva, who is a soloist of the Plovdiv Opera," said the mezzo-soprano.

The Director of the Italian Cultural Institute, Maria Mazza, announced the concert "Mediterranean Stories" on April 20 at Sofia Live Club. Italian vocalist Flo (artistic pseudonym of Floriana Cangiano) will perform as well. 

The Director of the Polish Institute Karol Zielinski presented the recital of Ludmil Angelov, which is to take place on November 30on 30 at Bulgaria Hall, and is organized together with the Hungarian Cultural Institute. The great Bulgarian pianist will perform works by Liszt and Chopin.