The New Year Music Festival at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia features two concerts by young soloists and composers. The project is called Sofia Meets Luxembourg Intercultural Dialogue and is organized by the Artistes en Herbe Luxembourg association with President Albena Vratchanska.

The association also organizes an Artistes en Herbe contest, the panel of judges includes Prof. Dr. Borislava Taneva, lecturer at the Pancho Vladigerov National Music Academy. Thanks to the two Bulgarian ladies the project will be presented to audiences in Sofia at the end of this week. The first part of the intercultural dialogue will be on December 11 with the participation of the “Pioneer” Youth Philharmonic with conductor Lubomir Denev Jr. and soloists from Luxembourg. On the following day there will be a matinee concert with young performers playing works by their peers but also by established names in music.

But how did the project come about? Prof. Dr. Borislava Taneva:

“I shall have to go back to the year 2010. I have frequently had to compose children’s music for child pianists, because I teach piano but I also have a teaching practice at the National Music Academy. A little before 2010 I released a collection of such pieces and sent it to the children’s music composition contest in Luxembourg, the only one of its kind. The works won the Grand Prix - that was my first contact with Luxembourg. The panel of judges made the unanimous decision to invite me to join them for the next edition of the contest. The competition focuses on children and the educational aspect of music. There were two categories which are not in direct competition – “Children write for children” and “Adults write for children”.  The children’s works are great, really moving. It is a wonderful thing to give them an opportunity to compose music. And this is a personal and professional cause for me – to encourage children and youngsters to create art themselves. My desire to find a real audience and a stage to present these works to the public came up spontaneously. With the help of the Artistes en Herbe associationand its president Albena Vratchanska we decided to bring the idea to Bulgaria. To my enormous satisfaction, the organizers of the New Year Music Festival embraced the idea. The event is taking place with the participation of the “Pioneer” Youth Philharmonic and children soloists from the two countries. The matinee on Saturday will present the award-winning works from the unique children’s music composition contest."

“I know most of the children taking part in the concerts as I have conducted several master classes in Luxembourg,” Prof. Taneva goes on to say. “They are of different nationalities and are aged 10 to 18. I would like to make special mention of pianist Zala Cravos who has been in Bulgaria several times. She studies in Brussels with Maria João Pires, a foremost name among pianists. She will perform part 2 and 3 of Piano Concerto in G major by Ravel. Gavril Lekuit is another talented participant – he will perform Gypsy, again by Ravel. Nikolay Dimitrov, a very gifted 14-year old pianist from Rousse, has already won numerous awards. Sofia Bolonaki, first prize winner at the 2010 contest in Luxembourg will be here for  Saturday’s concert of the award-winning composers, as will Marta Gaytandjieva – 3rd prize in 2015. There will be several very interesting guests from the adult section as well.”

The audio file contains the following pieces:

- Fairytale by Borislava Taneva;

- Minuet. 

English version: Milena Daynova