site.btaPianist Emanuil Ivanov: It Was Joy to Perform Again on Home Stage

In а BTA interview, pianist Emanuil Ivanov shared that it was a joy for him to perform again on his home stage. Ivanov was part of the opening of the 50th anniversary edition of the International Festival of Symphonic and Contemporary Music Winter Music Evenings – Prof. Ivan Spasov in Pazardzhik.

"I am always happy when I return to my home stage, Pazardzhik is my hometown. I haven't participated in the festival since 2020, and it was a great honour and pleasure for me to be part of it again," he added.

"My education is in its final phase – a one-year specialization at the Royal Academy in London, which offers many opportunities for concerts, meetings with people from the music industry, and so forth. In the remaining time of this season and the next, I am preparing many exciting projects. First of all, the upcoming cycle of three evenings dedicated to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with orchestra, within the Allegra festival in Sofia. Another big project for this year is dedicated to Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues in his memory [marking the 50th anniversary of his death]," Ivanov further said.

"I am looking forward to performances in Sofia, London, Japan, and other places at the start of the next season. I am also preparing for a new recording project in April for the Linn Records label with music by the American composer Frederic Rzewski. I am trying to become more actively involved in composition as well," he added.

The symphonic music enthusiasts in Pazardzhik applauded the performance of virtuoso pianist Emanuil Ivanov. A graduate of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, he was the soloist in the concert on the first festival evening. The concert was conducted by the artistic director of the Pazardzhik Symphony Orchestra, Maestro Grigor Palikarov, and the programme included works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Richard Strauss. Emanuil is a laureate of the Ferruccio Busoni prize, which is awarded rarely.

Born in 1998 in Pazardzhik, having started at the Children's Music School at the Videlina Community Centre, progressing through the city’s Winter Music Evenings children's performances and matinées, studying piano with Prof. Atanas Kurtev, and later becoming a student with a full scholarship at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, today Emanuil Ivanov performs on the world’s biggest stages.