site.btaSofia Music Weeks Festival Closes with Brazilian Sunday

The Sofia Music Weeks festival closes its summer programme with a Brazilian Sunday. The event is on July 6 in the Sofia Philharmonic Chamber Hall, the organizers said.

Within the framework of three concert events, the audience will enjoy a colorful combination of romantic classics, contemporary chamber music and Brazilian rhythms, the organizers said.

Igor Cognolato, an Italian pianist with Croatian and Hungarian roots, will open the Brazilian Sunday with a program inspired by the aesthetics of late romanticism. Cognolato is a piano professor at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory of Music. He has performed in Europe and the USA with a repertoire enriched with interpretations of Liszt and Schumann. In Bulgaria he will present works by Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann and Aldo Riccobono.

Brazilian guitarist Ulisses Rocha will present original works, as well as works by Egberto Gismonti, Garoto, Dorival Caymmi, Edu Lobo. He is a composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist, combining Brazilian tradition, jazz and classical with improvisational ease. He is among the leading figures on the Brazilian instrumental scene and has performed on five continents, the festival team said.

The Brazilian evening will be closed with 21st century chamber music by the Bluestone Contemporary Ensemble, an ensemble of young American musicians and professors from James Madison University (USA). The program will present contemporary works for flute, clarinet and piano, inspired by Latin American and Spanish influences.