The Jazz forum in Stara Zagora (central South Bulgaria) kicked off on June 12, Thursday. The program includes some of the best Bulgarian jazz projects and renowned foreign musicians also take part in it. This is the third edition of the jazz forum held in Stara Zagora. It was initiated by trumpeter Ventsi Blagoev who picks the main topic of the festival each year. We have more from Mr. Blagoev:

“The main accent now falls over the works of Bulgarian jazz composers who are indeed great musicians. Of course, it is not possible to gather everyone at the same time, but at least we attempted to make a brief retrospection. You will hear in the program authors’ pieces of renowned Bulgarian pianists Milcho Leviev, Mario Stanchev, Lubomir Denev, Antony Donchev and some other younger colleagues. Some of the Bulgarian saxophone players such as Vladko Karparov, Dimitar Lyolev and Dimitar Momchev are also among the composers of the pieces. We have planned two workshops under the guidance of foreign guests-world famous saxophone player George Garzone who teaches at Barclay College and Daniel Hidalgo Wong- a Mexican pianist and composer. I worked together with Daniel many years ago and also traveled with him a lot. Now he is to present his music trio.

“One town, one person and one festival-this is the recipe”, Ventzi Blagoev told Radio Bulgaria years ago. The town was Ruse and Petar Petrov-Parcheto was the person in question. He was the founder and organizer of the Jazz rendez-vous in the Danube town until one year ago when he passed away. He was a great musician who devoted himself to the Bulgarian music.

“Petar Petrov was my mentor”, says Ventzi Blagoev. “He used to advise me on the organization of the event and always repeated what mattered to him most: “We, Bulgaria’s Jazz musicians are a handful of people. We must support each other and constantly encourage our younger colleagues”, Petar Petrov used to say. “I always try to follow these words. When I invite foreign musicians they always participate in joint projects with Bulgarian jazzmen. Our last concert on June 14 is to unite guest musicians with their Bulgarian colleagues. I sent them in advance the music to some pieces I would like to perform together with them. Foreign musicians will perform music created by Bulgarian composers. Fingers crossed things will go well!”

The jazz forum  is part of the so-called Stara Zagora Jazz Week which includes interesting festival program-three consecutive evenings entitled Jazz for Kids, a photo exhibition and lectures themed Jazz motifs in Bulgarian Cinema. The children’s concerts are among Ventzi Blagoev’s most original ideas organized in different Bulgarian towns and cities. The cinema lectures are held in Bulgaria for the first time this year by Tsvetomir Tsankov. “We would like to focus peoples’ attention on the achievements of the Bulgarian jazz musicians in this sphere. We end this show with a piece by Antony Donchev created for director Tedi Moscov’s show at the Youth Theatre in Sofia entitled MakByu”.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov

The audio to this file contains the following pieces:

. Donna Lee

 . For Frederic and Bill written by Milcho Leviev to the rendition of Antony Donchev, Milcho Leviev, Viki Almazidu, Ventsi Blagoev and Hristo Yotsov

.  Makbyu