At a special ceremony and a gala concert at Bulgaria Hall in Sofia the prize winners in the Musician of the Year 2016 poll were awarded. They are determined by asking the listeners of the Horizont Channel of the Bulgarian National Radio music show Allegro Vivace to vote for their favorites. This has been the 26th edition of Musician of the Year. Listeners voted for nominations in five categories.

The Children’s Radio Choir with conductor Venecia Karamanova won the nomination for “Ensemble of the Year”. The choir sang several songs included in its repertoire in the recent years.

Violinist Kristina Georgieva received the award in the category "Young Musician of the Year" and opera singer Lyudmila Mikhailova – for creative activity. The “Anniversary" award went to composer Peter Lyondev whose 80th birthday was celebrated in 2016.

The prize in the name of Olga Kambourova, a longtime presenter and author of the Allegro Vivace show, as well as founder of Musician of the Year, was given for the first time. It supports young talent and its first winner is guitarist Georgi Dimitrov. In the coming months he is going to make a studio recording at the Bulgarian National Radio. The young guitarist received another wonderful opportunity – at the gala concert he played with the Sofia Soloists Chamber Orchestra conducted by Prof. Plamen Djouroff.

The award for “Music Project of the Year" went to “Tango" of the  duo Vesko Eschkenazi and Ludmil Angelov who performed several pieces from the new album.

The prestigious "Musician of the Year - 2016" award went to Svetoslav Obretenov National Philharmonic Choir. Established in November 1944, the choir was named after its founder and first conductor. In 1981 it became an integral part of the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra. Over the past two years the choir has been led by conductor Slavil Dimitrov and has carried out a few worthy projects.

English Daniela Konstantinova

Audio features the following works:

1. Scherzo by Eugene Klyuev performed by the Children’s Radio Choi, conductor Venecia Karamanova

2. Ergen deda by Petar Lyondev

3. Por una cabeza by Carlos Gardel

4. Lord, have mercy chant by Stoyan Babekov, performed by Svetoslav Obretenov National Philharmonic Choir conducted by Slavil Dimitrov