Moni Simeonov has been living in the USA for nearly two decades. He left for that country when he was fifteen at the invitation and with the assistance of one of his violin teachers. In 2009 he became the Concertmaster at the Sacramento Philharmonic. Moni is among the three concertmasters of prestigious world orchestras who are to perform as soloists at the concert of Radio FM Orchestra on April 24 in Bulgaria hall in Sofia. The band will be conducted by Grigor Palikarov. The music event is a highlight in the European Music Festival. Many popular pieces for violin and orchestra were included in the music programme. Albena Danailova, the first female concertmaster in the history of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and Dimitar Ivanov, the first concertmaster of the orchestra of the Opera of Frankfurt am Main (Opern und Museumsorchester), are the other two soloists of today’s concert.

In recent years Moni Simeonov spent most of his time working with the California State University where he is director of the Strings Department and violin and chamber music professor. Moni Simeonov was born in the city of Plovdiv (Central South Bulgaria) to the family of musicians. He was exposed to different music influences since he was a little child. His father was a cellist. His mother was a pianist and his grandfather was a choir conductor. Moni’s grandmother was also a pianist and often took him with her to the opera where she worked as an accompanist. Todor Pelev, a violinist and music pedagogue at the Idyllwild Arts Academy in California convinced Moni Simeonov to apply for a scholarship in the USA.

He held a solo concert in Plovdiv, Moni Simeonov explains. We met after his performance and he asked me to send some of my recordings to the school in which he taught violin. We did so and Todor Pelev managed to arrange a very reasonable scholarship and later I departed to California. I was not stressed by the fact than I was far from my family. I and six other young Bulgarians were there at the same time – pianist Alexander Chobanov, cellist Veselin Nedelcev, etc. I come to Bulgaria at least once a year. Here I participate in concerts as concertmaster or as soloist of symphony orchestras. I also lead master classes in Bulgaria. I always get very excited when I teach in Plovdiv – in the same classrooms where I studied vibrato and détaché.

Moni Simeonov holds concerts and conducts master classes in many countries. His last tour in China, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka ended several weeks ago.

I visited many interesting places in the USA as well. I remember my first visit in Fargo, North Dakota. It was in January and was Minus 40 C outside. I remember that the students were playing with snowballs before we started the masterclass. It took them few minutes to start playing. However, I was not in condition to play the violin, although I did not go outside at all. Life in the Far East and Latin America is much different to life in Bulgaria, but people everywhere respond equally well to good music.

I try to be useful to my students and teach them what I learnt. I studied in the classes of Boyanka Shopova and Darina Danova in Bulgaria. In the USA Todor Pelev showed me the basics of the so-called American way of performing and teaching and gave me the first start. I took my Bachelor’s degree in the classes of Zvi Zeitlin- a very popular musician who passed away in 2012 at ninety six. He used to play a concerto for violin and orchestra by Stravinsky, conducted by Stravinsky himself. The most important thing I learnt from him is to be persistent and believe in myself. In Yale University I was in the classes of Ani Kavafian who taught me to be convincing on stage. I got my Doctorate degree in the classes of celebrated violinist Midori. She taught us that we must perform the right actions regardless of the outcome. I studied in her classes for seven years and we still keep in touch. She often helps me when I have problems with my students. She always has an answer or is able to ask the question which would help me solve the problem. We made many tours together. We performed together in my last tour in Asia.

Several Bulgarian pieces are part of Moni Simeonov’s rich repertoire- Sevdana by Georgi Zlatev-Cherkin, Selska Rapsodia (Countryside Rhapsody) by Petar Hristoskov, etc. Moni is to perform the symphonic intermezzo Meditation from Thais Opera by Jules Massenet, as well as Tzigane (Gypsy) by Maurice Ravel at his concert on April 24 in Sofia.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov