site.btaJazz Singer Vassil Petrov Receives Dr Emil Iliev Award at Opening of International Jazz Festival in Borovets

On Friday, Bulgarian jazz singer Vassil Petrov received an award named after Dr Emil Iliev, founder of the International Jazz Festival in Bansko. Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) Director General Kiril Valchev presented the award on the opening night of the third edition of the festival, which was originally held in Bansko (Mt Pirin, Southwestern Bulgaria) from 1998. In 2022, the event was relocated to Borovets in Mt Rila, near Samokov in the same part of the country and was named Dr Emil Iliev International Jazz Festival. 

Valchev said: "BTA has been a media partner of the Borovets Jazz Festival since its first edition in 2022. But BTA's first news stories about a jazz festival in Bulgaria date from 1975, when the festival in Ruse was held first, just eight years after the famous jazz festival started in the Swiss city of Montreux."

He said that BTA's archives keep news items on many more jazz festivals in many more places in Bulgaria - from Sofia to Varna to Bansko, which was started by Dr Emil Iliev. "It is a great recognition for the Doctor that there are now jazz festivals inspired by him in two neighbouring mountains - in Mt Pirin and here in Mt Rila," BTA's Director General said. This echoes one of the distinctive features of jazz - polyrhythm, the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms, he added.

Improvisation is another distinctive feature of jazz, Valchev said. "The trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, who was born in the cradle of jazz, New Orleans, says it is thanks to improvisation that there are so many phenomenal figures in jazz. Tonight we are applauding such a phenomenal figure - Vassil Petrov."

"Besides being talented, he is also one of the hardest working Bulgarian musicians. The proof can again be found in BTA's news - in the last month alone, Vassil Petrov features ten times - which could be the envy not only of artists, but of many politicians. And tonight, the award named after Dr Emil Iliev and the performances at the Borovets Jazz Festival bring us to BTA's eleventh news item about Vassil Petrov," said Valchev.

16-year-old singer Valeria Stoyanova also received the Dr Emil Iliev Award, presented by Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) Director General Milen Mitev. He said he first heard Valeria earlier this year at a BNR Top 20 concert, where she was nominated Best Rising Musician. "I think tonight we were all convinced that she has left such categories far behind, as her star has fully risen. I believe she will brighten the Bulgarian musical firmament for many years to come," Mitev said.

Vassil Petrov and Valeria Stoyanova were soloists of the BNR Big Band under Antoni Donchev, which was the first to play on the opening night of the third edition of the Dr Emil Iliev International Jazz Festival in Borovets. They were followed by Keubitbit from Indonesia and Lina Rodrigues from Portugal.

The jazz festival ends on August 7. BTA is media partner of the event.