site.btaAcademia Roza in Its Fourth Season

The music of Dvorak and Paganini pours under the shadows of Shipka and Buzludzha, in the Valley of the Roses and the Thracian tombs. Under the shade of an arched veranda, dozens of young musicians repeat bars and phrases over, and over, and over. For the forty graduates of Bulgarian and foreign music schools, summer days are not filled with the enjoyment of vacation, but with the constant challenge and persistent cultivation of a lifelong passion.

For the fourth year, young performers gather at the summer music "Academia Roza" in the town of Shipka - many of them are here once again to perform together under the guidance of renowned teachers and accompanying world stars.

Maestro Maxim Eshkenazy is at the conductor's podium, and his young assistant Ukki Sachedina, who has flown in from Los Angeles, California, often joins in. Only 19 years old, Sachedina has a remarkable track record - he has been conducting for six years, three of them working alongside the maestro.

"I started with Maestro Eschkenazy from the very beginning. It's been a blessing because having a teacher like that - so dedicated, supportive of students and putting their development and learning first - has helped me grow," says Sachedina, who made his conducting debut at just 16 years old in a performance of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring. He has continued his musical education, and in the meantime has participated in international festivals and worked independently with a number of professional orchestras in the United States and Europe, including Bulgaria.

This is his second visit here. The first time, in the summer of 2022, he worked with the Ruse Philharmonic, State Opera-Burgas, Symphony-Vratsa, Symphony-Pazardzhik, Symphony-Vidin, and others, conducting symphonies by Brahms, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky as part of a four-week concert tour.

Now, participation as a substitute guest conductor at Academia Roza presents him with new challenges.

"Most of my experience so far has been with adult, professional orchestras. I think there's a significant difference here because children often have more energy. There's more life in their music and that's something very special that a conductor has to appreciate. On the other hand, there's also the problem of how to keep that life, that energy, not to let it fade in some way. This is mainly the conductor's responsibility. Conducting young people, you always have to be in tune with their interest, their enthusiasm, what inspires them in this music - that was a new challenge for me. And it's something that I find very inspiring as a conductor because it makes me re-evaluate how I rehearse with a formation like this. Not dryly or substantively, but to really include them in what I'm doing. Making music that moves people," Sachedina said.