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Flutist Mila Pavlova and her messages in music

Photo: private archive


Smiling, gentle and kindhearted, Mila Pavlova is someone people instantly like. And when she starts playing the flute she fascinates audiences, because she is a flutist fully dedicated to music. She cannot recall the precise moment when she fell in love with the sophisticated music instrument but is positive that nothing happens by chance.
Mila Pavlova graduated the Lubomir Pipkov High School of Music and Pancho Vladigerov Music Academy, both in Sofia. She is holder of a range of distinctions including two first prizes from the Golden Diana Chamber Music Competition, first prize from the Svetoslav Obretenov Competition, a gold medal from the international competition in Neerpelt, Belgium in 1989 and others. Mila has specialized in Paris with celebrated flutist Alain Marion. Apart from her solo career Pavlova is longtime member of the Pilekadone Woodwind and is part of the Symphony Orchestra of Classic FM Radio.
Mila Pavlova is the founder and artistic director of Days at Balabanov House International Festival. The forum has been given the distinction Music Project of the Year in the Bulgarian National Radio chart. In the same prestigious chart Mila herself has won the Music Manager of the Year award. She admits that love to chamber music dates back to her years at school. In this program we present the album Messages that gathers chamber music works by Bulgarian composers. part of them have been composed especially for Mila Pavlova.

"The CD Messages is something very intimate for me”, Mila says. “Each of the works in it is linked to strong emotions and memories. I know in person the composers of the works apart from late Lazar Nikolov. I have worked together with them on the pieces some of which I played for the first time ever in concert.  Let us take Contrasts for Flute and Tuba by Marin Goleminov, one of the greatest Bulgarian 20 c. composers. This remarkable work was created for flute and tuba but because of its extraordinary difficulty especially for the tuba, had not been performed in its original version. Wonderful tuba player Nikolay Temiskov took a major challenge. Tunes – I and II by Stanislava Stoytcheva have been composed for me and for the solo horn player of the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra Yassen Teodosiev. Wonderful Stoyan Pavlov (drum) joined us for the recording. Apart from being a talented composer, Stanislava is an excellent pianist and opera singer, and she is quite good in jazz too. She was soloist of the opera house in Munich and later set up her own vocal studio there. While she was writing the Tunes we communicated via Skype and discussed the role of various instruments while she played everything on the piano... So this work is the result of a friendship.”


The CD Messages includes Charms for solo flute by Lubomir Denev, as well as Sonata for Flute and Cembalo by Velislav Zaimov in which Mila Pavlova partners with Tsvetelina Panayotova. The Sonata for Flute and Piano by Lazar Nikolov is a joint performance with renowned pianist Prof. Dimo Dimov. „I am grateful to all my colleagues and friends with whom I work – teamwork with them has always resulted in worthy achievements”, Mila Pavlova says. Every single work in the project has its own amusing story:

Flautas Grecas for Flute, Piccolo and Electronics is by Alexander Kandov, a talented Bulgarian composer who lives and works in Madrid. His pieces is made up of miniatures that he singled out while writing music for a movie on screenplay by Luis Alcoriza. The miniatures are very hard to play and the partner in them is the computer. I played them for the first time at the concert marking his 60th birthday and I then recorded them on CD. The miniatures have been written for me,” Mila Pavlova says.

The last track from the music messages of Mila Pavlova is an original work entitled Message. The flutist says: „This work by Yulia Tsenova has been written especially for me and my colleagues on a very rewarding occasion. With my colleagues Rosen Idealov (clarinet), Valentin Toshev (viola) and Tsvetelina Panayotova (piano) we had an invitation to join SIMIN Bucharest, one of the most prestigious festivals for new music. So, we formed a group with flute, clarinet, viola and piano. Composers do not write music for such a group very often. Back at that time Yulia Tsenova was in Holland, and so we asked her to write a work for us. After some time she replied that it was ready and was entitled Message. In it she drew up an association with text messages on mobile phones that we use a lot. of course this piece of music has much deeper meaning: after all, Yulia Tsenova was a very spiritual person and a brilliant composer who, unfortunately, passed away too early”.

Recently Mila Pavlova made recordings at the Bulgarian National Radio.
"One work that I recently recorded with horn player Yassen Teodosiev is by Academician Vassil Kazandzhiev. It is very interesting in instrumental terms and is very difficult to play, so we are very grateful to Vassil Kazandzhiev to have composed it and dedicated it to us. Currently, we have many projects with Pilekadone Woodwind Quintet – concerts in London, Sofia and Plovdiv. We are working for the spring edition of the Days of Music at the Balabanov House Festival. The program is excellent, and I am charged with plenty of positive energy!”

English Daniela Konstantinova

The audio to this file contains the following recordings featuring flutist Mila Pavlova:
1 – Tunes – II by Stanislava Stoytcheva
2 – Contrasts for Flute and Tuba by Marin Goleminov from the album Messages, a fragment
3 – Mixolidio from Flautas Grecas for Flute, Piccolo & Electronics by Alexander Kandov
4 – Message for Flute, Clarinet, Viola and Piano by Yulia Tsenova, a fragment



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