Having been founded in 1998 by Geoffrey Dean from USA and organized by Ardenza foundation the AmBul Festival has asserted itself as “an established forum for the presentation of new and neglected works by American and Bulgarian composers, for collaboration among composers and performers from Bulgaria and the US, and a podium for young musicians to be immersed in new music”, reads the festival’s website.

And its innumerable fans know that the programme upholds these values year on year. AmBul usually takes place in October over one week. The first exception to this rule is this year’s 14^th edition of the festival. Here is more from pianist Daniela Dikova who represents Ardenza:

“We say in jest that this year the festival is in bonsai format. Naturally, the reason is financial. But we do not give up easily. We know that the values we uphold each year in October must be developed over time. That is what motivates us to never give up and to hold onto our designated place, albeit with just three concerts. The opening concert was by Zvezdana Novaković‘s Slovena Quartet from Slovenia. She makes use of Slavic and Bulgarian tradition to create her own music and to improvise. Besides Zvezdana, the quartet features three other ladies she knows from her studies at the Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Art in Plovdiv. What captivated our imagination was her enthusiasm to work using Bulgarian folklore as a basis. Our musical heritage is a treasure trove that can never run dry, but we tend to forget it and it is people like Zvezdana that remind us of this. This year the festival is not within one week as it has always been. The next events are in November. There will be a concert by jazz trumpet player Ventsi Blagoev and his formation Jazztet. We wind up with a programme dedicated to contemporary Bulgarian music with works by Konstantin Iliev and Lyubomir Pipkov as well as one work by Georgi Arnaudov composed especially for the Viva Piano festival in a new transcript. We are grateful to the US embassy in Bulgaria for their support and to our hosts from the American Corner. To my mind the American Corner concert hall is very well suited to experimental music and improvisation. Experiment, innovation, improvisation – these are the key words of the AmBul festival.”

Zvezdana Novaković is a singer and harp player. As she likes to say, she has been in Bulgaria for two “lovely years”. Here she specialized folklore singing with Prof. Svetlana Stanilova. Here is what Zvesdana says about the Ethno Europe project which she put together with Gergana Pavlova, Nevyana Ganeva and Dilyana Vassileva, all of them soloists from the Trakia ensemble:

“The idea for Slovena Quartet was born out of my love of folk music. I am fascinated by Bulgarian voices. This ancient vocal technique opens up unimagined worlds for me. To my mind it is the most beautiful thing a woman could sing. I am very happy to be performing with the wonderful singers from the quartet. You have Slavic roots, I am from Slovenia and I see many things the two cultures share. For example the Bulgarian kukeri (mummers) – we have the same tradition in my country and we call them kurenti. We all come from the same family, as we say in Slovenia the “old Slavonic” family. Enthralled by your folk songs, I started doing arrangements of ancient Bulgarian music, but also music from Slovenia, Belarus, Serbia, Croatia. I shall endeavour to have my music reach out to all Slavs, wherever they may be.”

At their concert within the frameworks of the AmBul festival, Slovena Quartet performed their own compositions, based on famous folk songs from Bulgaria, America and Slovenia. There is but a handful of musical formations in this country capable of performing such a sophisticated repertoire with such a singular flair for folklore styles, modern harmony and inimitable artistry.

English version: Milena Daynova