Diko Iliev – composer, conductor, a sui generis talent, a unique phenomenon in Bulgarian culture – was born today, 125 years ago. He is the author of dozens of marches, waltzes, ruchenitsi, brass band music.

Diko Iliev was born in 1898 in Karlukovo village near Lukovit to a hard-working but poor family. One of the things the future composer loved best in his childhood years was the Sunday horo dancing in the village square. In his memoirs he frequently goes back to the colourful picture of people dancing in the square to the sound of folk music from the north of Bulgaria.

He was a music student in the military brass band in Orhanie (now Botevgrad) and was only 14 when he enlisted in the 16^th Lovech Infantry Regiment, part of the First Bulgarian Army. The Balkan War had broken out, then World War I and the young man fought in the battles on the Serez front. There, in the trenches, in 1917 he composed his first horo – Iskarsko horo. Later, back in Sofia, he worked at the Military School Orchestra and played first trombone in the orchestra of the Sofia Opera.

Then he returned to the part of the country where he was born, where he continued his music studies by himself as well with Alexander Weiner, the Czech conductor of the 36^th Kozloduy Infantry Regiment as his tutor. In this orchestra, Diko Iliev started out as a musician and later inherited the conductorship from his mentor. He lived in the town of Oryahovo and spent his spare time going to villages nearby, where he taught children and young people, set up brass bands, for which he wrote music suited to their age and abilities.

For a long time his horos were regarded as folk music, something the composer took to be his biggest reward. Diko Iliev spent the last years of his life in Montana. He died in 1984.

A few years later Montana started hosting a brass bands festival named after him. In 1994, the festival became a national event. A Diko Iliev brass bands festival is also held in Oryahovo, with the participation of orchestras from abroad. This year it will be taking place for the 22^nd time. The event is hosted by the brass band of the Nadezhda 1871 chitalishte (community culture club) in the town, also named after the composer. The band’s artistic director Kuzman Kuzmanov and the chitalishte secretary Hrizantema Rasheva are among the most vigorous researchers into Diko Iliev’s music. Two years ago, with their invaluable help, the Bulgarian National Radio recorded hitherto unknown works by the inimitable composer.

English version: Milena Daynova