On 29 Sept. the Bulgarian National Radio marked the International Music and Poetry Day (1 October) with a night dedicated to arts. Hall 6 of the National Palace of Culture in Sofia hosted the event as audiences applauded the Radio's music ensembles that officially opened their new season. The Night of Music opened with a performance of the Radio Children vocal group.

The mixed choir performed works by Edward Elgar and Leonard Bernstein, "Hallelujah" from the oratorio "Messiah" by Handel together with the Symphony Orchestra of the BNR. The orchestra in turn presented Symphony №36 by Mozart and excerpts from works of Rossini and Pancho Vladigerov.

The Bulgarian National Radio Folk Music Orchestra was also featured on the playbill. Its conductor Dimitar Hristov said more about the event and what is in store during the upcoming season: „This is a wonderful initiative of the colleagues from Hristo Botev channel - to celebrate music, poetry and art, here at Hall 6. For this occasion I collected an array of the very best from my soloists. Our new season has a few interesting things to offer. We are planning a concert on 13 October, at Studio 1 of BNR. On 5 December we team up with folk singer Nikolna Chakardakova at Hall 1 of the National Palace of Culture and on 20 December we will play in concert with the Sofia Philharmonic, the National Philharmonic Choir Svetoslav Obretenov, and the Cosmic Voices with Vanya Moneva. We are going to present a wonderful Xmas present to the audience entitled The Wild Roots.”

At the end of the night, Antoni Donchev and the BNR Big Band played the best of jazz music presented during last season's concerts including "Latino Fiesta" and "Jubilee Concert of Ivan Staikov". The audience learned about the new projects of the BNR musicians and the forthcoming music events.

Parallel to the music show Peroto Club of the National Palace of Culture brought together the lovers of poetry and music. There the show Artefir (Art Waves) of the BNR Hristo Botev channel celebrated its 25th anniversary with the program The Poets and Bards of Bulgaria. It presented poets awarded for their works in 2016. Special guests to the night were poet and singer Mikhail Belchev, poet Georgi Konstantinov, composer Haygashot Agassian and other big names. The finale with the name Poetry & Jazz was born in the improvisations of the Angel Zaberski trio offering a wonderful symbiosis of jazz and poetry reading. This has been in fact the first poetic jam session. The audience enjoyed the great atmosphere of the events and responded emotionally to what the program had to offer.

English Daniela Konstantinova