The Professor Emil Kamilarov International Music Festival is taking place in Sofia for the 5th time, the focus being on the contest for young violinists. It was launched on 22, October at the Army Club in Sofia. The winners will be announced on 31 October and will perform at the gala concert the same night with the Symphonieta orchestra and conductor Shungo Moriyama, Japan.

Musicians from Italy, Poland, Russia, Japan and Bulgaria are taking part in the contest. The media gave extensive coverage to the performance of an 11-year old girl from Japan, who made an incredible impression. The jury is chaired by Prof. Dina Shnaiderman, chief organizer and founder of the festival. The renowned violinist is wife of Emil Kamilarov, dubbed the Bulgarian Paganini, after winning first place at the prestigious violin contest named after the Italian virtuoso in 1961.

The international forum has kept alive the memory of Prof. Kamilarov’s work. And that is not the only task Dina Shnaiderman has set herself. Born in Odessa, in recent years she has been living in Sweden, but has been doing everything in her power to popularize Bulgaria – the country where she spent her most active years. She says she is happy that the contest she organized is now part of the musical careers of young violinists – the world’s stars of the future. Every morning there are auditions, the evenings are dedicated to the festival programme; this edition will, for the first time, also features a folklore concert.

Franz Lehar’s opera “Paganini” will be presented on stage tonight. The “romantic opera”, as the composer himself calls his work, was first performed in Vienna in 1925. Tonight, it will be staged at the Stefan Makedonski Music Theatre by the music theatre’s soloists and orchestra. The difficult violin solos of the character of Paganini will be performed by 19-year old Stefan Samardjiev, first prize winner at last year’s contest and holder of numerous national and international awards. The young violinist has graduated the Lyubomir Pipkov National Music School with Milena Vuleva and is currently studying at the National Music Academy with Prof. Stoyka Milanova. Here is what Stefan Samardjiev says about his participation in the contest last year and about his performance in “Paganini”.

“It was really inspiring, incredible, but also hard, because the contest has three rounds. It closes with a gala concert of the contest winners with an orchestra - a wonderful way to gain experience. Now, I am to play the solos, performed by the protagonist in the opera “Paganini”. Of course, the role is played by a singer, I only appear at given times, as set down in the libretto. The pieces are no more difficult than what the violist himself created, but they have to be played with ease and virtuosity. I am thankful to have been given this opportunity. It is a wonderful thing to be playing with the orchestra of the music theatre. And I would especially like to thank conductor Yuli Damyanov who has been a great help to me and whose advice I highly value.”

Besides Stefan Samardjiev in the role of the “violin-playing Paganini”, the vocal part of the character is performed by tenor Stefan Petkov. The other roles are performed by Dobrina Ikonomova, Denko Prodanov, Katerina Touparova.

The audio file contains the following works:

- Fragment of part 3 of Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra by Niccolo Paganini, performed by Emil Kamilarov with the Sofia Philharmonic, conductor Vassil Stefanov;

- Aria of Paganini, performed by Mario Nikolov with the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conductor Deyan Pavlov.

English Milena Daynova