There are 28 countries members of the EU and as many concerts from the cycle “Music of Europe”. This magnificent series was launched with a concert dedicated to Estonia – the country which held the Presidency of the Council of the EU before Bulgaria. The concerts, with very few exceptions, take place every Monday. The last one will be in June with music from Austria – the country that will take over the Presidency from this country.

“Music of Europe” is a joint project of the Sofia Philharmonic and the Prof. Pancho Vladigerov National Academy of Music, with the support of the National Culture Fund. The performers taking part have been selected by the organizers depending on what works go into the programme. Some of them are foreigners presenting their national culture. In some of the concerts, the respective country is presented by Bulgarian musicians.

In just a few days’ time, on Monday, 26 February, the Sofia quartet and pianist Stefan Vrachev will be playing works by Caesar Frank and Jean-Baptiste Bréval in “Music from France”. On 5 March, the music of Solon Michaelides will transport the audience to Cyprus.

Here is more from Prof. Borislava Taneva, Vice Rector of the Music Academy.

“Our students also take part in the concerts dedicated to Finland, Latvia, Slovakia, as well as in the Bulgaria concert. By way of exception, this concert will be on 3 March, Bulgaria’s national day. At the initiative of the previous management of the Sofia Philharmonic, a wonderful initiative has been organized for some years – a music marathon of all-Bulgarian music in all of the halls of the concert complex “Bulgaria”. Besides academy students, students form the Lyubomir Pipkov National Music School will also be taking part, as well as students from other music schools across the country. I think this is an incredible opportunity for young performers. Several of the concerts from the cycle have already taken place – all of them to a packed house. I think that from a cultural project, “Music of Europe” has been turning into a social phenomenon. This enormous interest in the cycle shows just how much people really do need concerts like this. In our selection of the programme we did our best to pick a diversity of music in terms of genre. The concerts are not samples that represent the best of classical tradition in a given country. For example, the Romanian programme had operetta overtones, in the Latvian selection the emphasis was on folklore. There are several countries with a second concert – Cyprus, Estonia (with works by Arvo Pärt, it took place on 2 January). Some of the names we invited really are emblematic – like the fantastic cellist Anja Lechner from Germany who gave an amazing performance, creating the kind of atmosphere in the concert hall that can never be put into words…

I would like to take the opportunity to say that besides taking part in this festival, our students are also involved in what we call bonus concerts, part of the series of concerts by the Sofia Philharmonic. We have lined up concerts of works by Rachmaninov, Brahms, with students from the Vocal and the Instrumental Faculty. Students from the Pop and Jazz department also had an interesting concert, together with the Svetoslav Obretenov National Philharmonic Choir. Students of ours are regular soloists of symphony and chamber orchestras all over the country – in Vidin, Vratsa, Pazardzhik. There will be a composition workshop for electronic gaming music – a joint project with Cantus Firmus Music Agency and with Penka Kouneva, a Bulgarian-born composer who has been living in USA for years, a prominent soundtrack and gaming music composer. We will have world famous names at this workshop and they will be meeting with our students. We expect this event to generate a great deal of interest. We also maintain very good contacts with the Bulgarian culture institute in Vienna - Haus Wittgenstein – which offers its stage every year for young musicians from the academy to perform on.”

English version: Milena Daynova