On 22 April the Bulgarian National Radio Folk Music Orchestra is giving a concert with the motto The Rhythms of the Balkans at the Radio's concert studio. Today the same program will be presented at the Nikola Vaptsarov Theater in Blagoevgrad.

The Rhythms of the Balkans is one of the thematic lines that the BNR Folk Music Orchestra has been pursuing over the last two creative seasons. The series of concerts united under this motto presents unique soloists that come from the countries of the Balkan region. The mediator in this diverse mix of traditions and cultural differences is the BNR folk music orchestra (FMO) with its talented musicians. They add their Bulgarian color to this mosaic with both accompaniments and the pieces they perform. The FMO conductor Dimitar Hristov told Radio Bulgaria more about this year's program:

„We are having this time Derya Turkan of Turkey, a famous kemence player. He has appeared worldwide - in France, USA, Spain, Belgium, Greece etc. and is known in this country with a few albums. The audience will have the pleasure to listen to Milan Zavkov, conductor of the Tanec folklore ensemble from Skopje. He is a virtuoso accordionist famous in the Balkans and beyond. I am also impressed by Kyriakos Tapakis of Greece He plays the oud and is a foremost contemporary musician, a modest person and an erudite. We are happy to present our colleague from Serbia Boran Dugic who plays the frula (an instrument not unlike the Bulgarian shepherd's flute). He is one of the most experienced soloists of the Belgrade Radio and Television Orchestra. He has been nicknamed the Magic Frula and takes part in the Jordi Savall project together with the BNR FMO soloist Nedyalko Nedyalkov (shepherd's flute). Boran Dugic appears in a duo with accordionist Boban Prodanovic also of Serbia. The concert will present incredible performances with the exotic instruments kemence, oud and frula, as well as the proficient accordions from Macedonia and Serbia.”

The program tonight and tomorrow also features a few orchestral pieces - Balkan Games and A Folklore Variation by Georgi Andreev and the premiere of the piece Hotchpotch by Angel Dobrev, a rebec player and FMO soloist. The concert will wind up with the piece Arap, its name derived from a popular chain dance pattern in the Pirin region. It has been written especially for the event and will be performed by the orchestra and all soloists thus adding further meaning and unity to the motto The Rhythm of the Balkans.

English Daniela Konstantinova